


I'm Doing This For Them

by lrhaboggle



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series)
Genre: "canon" Riley/JPG, AU, Backstory, EtN, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, Forgive Me, Gems, Haruko and Kira are a couple, History, Lesbian, Magic, Minor Romance, Mystery, Novella, Prequel, Queer Women, Romance, Season 2, Shipping, Started off as a one shot, Victorian era, WARNING: Novel-Length, Werewolf, Witches, YouTube, Youtuber - Freeform, almost everyone gets a real name, crown of oblivion, escape the night, got way longer, implied Alison/JPG, joey graceffa - Freeform, jumbled geography, jumbled timeline, lol, looong story, lots of queer women, mansion, queer, spells, vampire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-10-01 23:52:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 62,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17253722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lrhaboggle/pseuds/lrhaboggle
Summary: That's what Alison told the Novelist, but just who was "them"? Thanks to "Escape the Night", we know about Joey and friends, but we know little about Alison or the people she loved. Who was she really willing to die for? Who was she trying to save? It's time this vampire princess' secrets were told. After all, the mansion is far big enough to hold a whole new side to the story.





	1. Alison

Alison was a rare case. Not only was she a vampire, but she was also a princess. This was because her creator, who had also since become her adoptive father, was the vampire king himself: King Dorian. Despite such an impressive genesis, however, Alison took no pride in being related to King Dorian in any way, shape, or form. If anything, their bond only confused the younger vampire. This was because she still wasn't quite sure what the vampire king had seen in her in the first place to make him want her to be his daughter. Why had he chosen her, of all people, to be his child? And why had he even wanted a daughter at all? It wasn't like he was going to need an heir, and he certainly wasn't the kind of guy to just surrender the throne for fun. He wasn't even very fatherly or kind, so it wasn't like he'd turned Alison just to have a companion! He didn't even like her! And vice versa! So to Alison, it made no sense that Dorian had made her his daughter.

But she supposed that it did not really matter in the end. What was done was done. She was a vampire princess now, her undead status irreversible and her role as Dorian's daughter just as much so. Regardless of her new father's motives, Alison was and would forever be a vampire and there was nothing that she or Dorian could do to fix or undo this. But, it wasn't like the life she was leaving behind had been all that much better or different than the one she had now. In life, she had still been a noblewoman who had lived in a castle with her parents and scores of servants and guards to answer her every demand. She hadn't been a princess in life, having only been a baroness, but the way she saw it, her time with Dorian was still not too different from the life she used to have. She liked to say that the only real difference between then and now was the type of food she ate and type of company she kept.

What she meant by the type of food she ate was obvious, but what she meant by the type of company she kept was a bit more complicated. Of course, most of her new companions were just like her, but as she would come to know, vampires weren't the only type of creature hiding out in the underbelly of the world. On the contrary, witches, werewolves, zombies, robots, fairies, harpies, deities, aliens, spider-women and all matter of other, mystical, mythological creatures existed within her world as well. And her father, being the vain and prideful king he was, never wasted a chance to show off his power, wealth, fame and grandiose by hosting a great deal of parties and events for all of these creatures to flock to in order to stand in awe at the foot of his mighty throne. That was how Alison met most of these other creatures, through her father's constant parties. Since she was his daughter, and therefore the princess, she had been expected to attend every single one of these shows, events, balls or parties, so she knew a lot of these other creatures very well. Alas, she was not very close with any of them. And that same deal also went for her fellow vampires.

For some reason, despite being a vampire herself, Alison had never developed any close friendships with any of the other vampires that lived with her in Dorian's little castle. Now, none of the vampires were mean to her, per se, but for some reason, Alison had always been a bit of an outsider to them, despite being their princess. It was clear she did not enjoy their company and, likewise, they did not enjoy hers, her being so incredibly infuriating because of how... strange she was. Neither Alison nor any of the other vampires could really explain it, but, for some reason, Alison had always been a bit of a black sheep in the vampire circle and whenever she tried to fix it and actually hang out with her fellow vampires, it only ended in disappointment, distaste and displeasure. No matter how many times or how hard Alison tried, attempts at befriending the vampires never gave her any progress and she remained just as uninterested in them today as she had when she was first turned years and years ago.

For example, three of the vampires she knew the best were Morgan, her father's head guard, Calvin, a soldier in training and Vera, a young court lady. All three of them pretty much summed up the general attitude of the vampire court as a whole and why Alison didn't get along with any of them. Morgan was too haughty and surly, constantly strutting around the halls like he owned the place and baring his fangs at anyone "causing trouble" or "being unruly" or "threatening the king". Calvin was much the same, though whereas Morgan's attitude at least came from experience, all Calvin was, was an egotistical and self-absorbed fool. Alison probably hated him most of all because of all the times he'd bragged about being a vampire soldier. Alison had bested him every time they battled and yet he still had the gall to act strong, brave and battle-ready. Then there was Vera. She was just annoying. She was rude, loud, aggressive and far too sexual for Alison. Now, Alison had no issue with sexuality or sensuality, but Vera was a cut above the rest. She was a stalker and predator. It was the unhealthy kind of sexuality, not just a genuine and general exploration of lust, which was something even Alison partook in at times. But that summed up the court. They were either a bunch of self-righteous Morgans, aggressive and arrogant Calvins who liked to act tough, or bossy, bratty, snobby Veras who had no sense of self-control, whether in terms of starting fights or starting new love affairs. Was it any wonder why Alison tried to avoid her vampire court?

The same went for all of the other mystical, magical creatures that came to Dorian's doors. In the vast array of beasts, humans, monsters, magical entities, or some combo of the four, none of them had struck Alison's fancy any more than her own court did. Sure, she knew all of her father's closest friends and allies by name, but that was only due to how often she saw them, not because she actually cared for any of them. And once again, this strange sense of distance and vague dislike was mutual. All of Dorian's closest allies were familiar with Alison's name and face, just because she was his daughter, but none of them really liked her. They did not exactly dislike her either, but she was just so distant and hard to reach out to that none of them were quite sure what to make of her, and Alison never made any attempt to clear the air or break the ice either. This was mostly because she was worried that if she did try to get to know them, they would be just as bad as her vampire court, so she preferred to keep an icy distance, which of course made it hard to make any friends, let alone really loyal ones.

So, despite living a very extravagant life, surrounded by all the companions and companion types that the world had to offer, Alison was still very much alone in her existence and it made her feel rather empty inside. She wasn't quite sad or angry, leaning more towards the emotion of apathy, but there were times that the boredom and loneliness made her wish for something else, something more. Even though she was already in the lap of luxury, wanting for nothing and surrounded by tons of creatures, she still felt inexplicably useless and helpless, like her whole life was meaningless and pointless, and if something were to happen to her, no one would notice or care because she had no real friends. She had allies and acquaintances, but that was it. It really was a very barren life to live and it left Alison quiet, distant and a little bit broody.

Tonight was a classic case. Like always, Dorian was having another ball to celebrate himself and, like always, Alison was in attendance. It was just another dance. Just another party. Just more creatures flocking around Dorian and indulging in all the food, drink and company he had to offer. Gorgeous dresses, fancy suits, top hats, crowns, jewelry, finery, eatery. All typical stuff. Oh, sure, the party was aesthetically amazing, but the underlying current of how it transpired was still the same as always and it was starting to bore Alison terribly and she almost wished someone would start a fight or something just to give her something new to look at that wasn't more whirling, twirling vampires, fairies, human-animal hybrids, or whoever else had decided to come to tonight's extravaganza.

And that was another problem with Dorian's parties. Since they happened so often, not every guest came to every single one, knowing full well that if they were to miss one party, Dorian would just throw another one soon enough. This created an inconsistency in who all came to these events and this meant that, some parties, Alison was left off a little more lonely than others. Although she did not have any deep friendships, there were still a few creatures around that she did enjoy spending time with. Usually, it was the lighter, gentler creatures, like fairies and other little woodland spirits or sprites. Sometimes, too, it was the nicer witches of the world. The other, more aggressive creatures like werewolves and fellow vampires were just too much for Alison to handle most nights. Sure, she had a mean and aggressive streak as well and there was nothing quite like a good fight to strengthen up the muscles, but it still annoyed her that blood and battle was all some of these more vicious creatures would talk about.

However, there was one exception to this rule. The two creatures that Alison spent the most time with, outside of her vampire court, were two half-human, half-spider women. The race of spider-humans was, like the vampires and werewolves, a rather violent race, but the reason Alison tolerated them was because, despite their bloodthirsty nature, they were not that overtly aggressive. While one might see a vampire or a werewolf getting into a scuffle every few minutes, the spider-women only got aggressive while hunting for food, but that was a rare case because their methods of hunting were to seduce their victims in. There was no chasing or screaming or fighting, just quiet seduction. For that, Alison preferred the spider-women more than all of the other, more violent creatures in her father's entourage. In particular, the two that Alison spent the most time with were named Kira and Haruko and, on the nights that they did come to Dorian's parties, Alison would spend the night playing cards with them.

Sadly, tonight would not be one of those nights, the spider-women having chosen to sit this party out. They did have to come all the way over from Japan, after all, and a commute back and forth from England to Japan wasn't that simple, even if the creatures doing the commuting had spider and magic powers both to help them. But this was why Alison was especially dour tonight. Not only had the monotony and mundanity of her life been bothering more and more of late, but now the only two people who ever really helped her take her mind off of her worries weren't even here tonight. It was just her and her alone, standing on the fringes of Dorian's ballroom and watching everyone else dance and make merry while her own head swirled with morose and bitter thoughts, no one there to help pull her back out of it.

At one point, while sulking alone in her corner, Alison looked over to her father's throne. He was reclining in it, surrounded by several creatures of various species, and although she could not hear a word he said, she could see from his wide, fanged, smile that he was having the time of his life right then. She even saw him laugh at one point, tossing his head back with his mouth opened wide. Alison rolled her eyes. Perhaps the worst thing about these parties was Dorian himself. It just annoyed her to think that the only reason any of these balls ever even happened in the first place was just because he wanted to show off and be adored and complimented. Now, Alison understood how being a royal might get to someone's head and make them want to be a bit vain and flashy, but Dorian was a cut above the rest. Even for a king, he was incredibly egotistical. And watching him up there, lounging on his throne with a small group of worshippers right at his feet made Alison want to puke. It angered her to think that she only came to these things because he had commanded her to.

And that was another thing. There was more to Alison obeying Dorian's orders than a simple desire to humor him or a lack of an excuse to defy him. It went deeper than superficial emotions like that. It was an invisible, but very real and very strong bond between the two of them. Maybe she had no love for him, and maybe he had no love for her, but vampires were fiercely loyal creatures, especially to whomever they bonded with. In the case of Alison and Dorian, this bond was the one between creator and creation, notoriously strong. Alison always felt unable to disobey Dorian simply because he was her creator, having marked her not just with his fangs, but with his very soul, tying them together with that metaphorical bond. That wasn't to say she was physically incapable of defiance, it just meant that even though her head might be telling her to disobey Dorian, her heart would always persuade and compel her to do otherwise.

No one was quite sure why this strange bonding existed, but many theorized that it was so the vampires, as a species, could survive. After all, what good would it be if all the vampires ever did was kill each other? Answer: it wouldn't be. So that's what the most accepted idea was. A vampire's deep sense of loyalty to whomever they bonded with, especially if it was their creator/creation, existed solely to keep the vampire species alive and well, forcing them to feel compelled to coexist just so that their species could propagate and not kill each other off at the first sign of competition. And propagate it did, as Alison could see firsthand as she continued to look around the ballroom, teeming with vampires. Although other creatures were here, as this was a vampire's castle, those were the most numerous of them all.

So, for that, no matter whether or not she wanted to attend, Alison always felt compelled to go to every ball, party, meeting and event that her father put on, not just by his own admonishments and commandments, but her own deep-seeded sense of loyalty that, like the sweet and powerful taste of fresh blood on the tongue, refused to ever leave her. She could not defy her father even if she wanted to because that vampire loyalty within her always convinced her to heed his words and obey the ties that bound them...

And speak of the Devil! Alison hadn't realized that she had been staring at Dorian until he finally caught her eye, raised an eyebrow, then waved her over. Unable to disobey, partly due to her natural compulsion as his creation and partly because she had no excuse to not go, Alison walked forward, away from her corner of solitude and right to her father's side. Seeing her come, the others at Dorian's feet got respectfully out of the way and returned to the main part of the party. Once again, although none of them knew or cared for Alison on a personal level, they were still going to give the vampire princess their utmost respect.

So while they went back out to the main part of the ballroom, Alison drew ever closer to her arrogant and moody father. But that was the strangest thing. The party must've been going better for him than usual, which was the total reverse of Alison who hadn't been quite this sick of partying in a long time, because instead of demanding to know why she had been staring at him so, he only invited her to come sit by him and chat. He even smiled at her! A true sign that he was in an especially good mood tonight. That man never smiled at Alison. So Alison bit out a pathetic little grin of her own, leaning against his throne to talk.

"Ah! Alison, my darling, my child!" he began languidly, reclining even further back into his throne. "Does it get any better than this?" he waved one hand over the glittering assembly, the other clutching at a golden goblet filled to the brim with warm, fresh blood.

"No, it does not, father," Alison replied, robotically. Dorian heard this hollow tone and narrowed his eyes.

"What? Are you not enjoying this magnificent event?" he sounded disappointed, but still not angry. Not yet at least.

"Not very much so tonight, father," the younger vampire replied, still sounding hollow as she answered with the truth instead of a flattering lie. She glared at Dorian's goblet while he finally began to frown, Alison's curt tone finally getting to him. He sat up a bit to glare at her.

"Bah! You take this all for granted, do you not?" he demanded crossly.

Although he didn't want it to, his mood was beginning to slip from its previous good humor, and it was all because of Alison! Seriously! Why did that girl have to be so stubborn? He'd chosen her to be his daughter, after all. Was that not a good deal? He'd given her a place in his castle and his royal family and treated her like one of his own, ensuring that she would want for nothing, yet still she complained! Never satisfied with anything he did for her! He had blessed her with this grand and glorious eternal life, ensuring she received only the finest of everything as the princess of his court, and yet she still disdained it all and never smiled at him even once! And thanking him? Yeah, right!

"That I do not, father," Alison replied at last to Dorian's previous question, but her overly-formal vocabulary and her rather flat tone made her true feelings all too clear. Before he could call her out on this, however, she continued to speak. "I just simply do not feel in good spirits for a ball tonight, and, as exquisite and clever as this party is, it brings no joy or happiness to me."

"Nor any other night, for that matter, it seems," the vampire king growled a little. He could hear the true unhappiness behind her formal wording and it made him mad. Why did she have to be so hard to please? So ungrateful and stubborn! And after all he'd done for her! She was impolite, arrogant, rude, argumentative, sulky, and pretty much everything Dorian hated and she seemed adamant in remaining in such a self-pitying state. It drove him mad and made him wonder what the heck went wrong with her.

Not for the first time did King Dorian curse his luck that the one girl he should find as a suitable daughter would, ultimately, turn out to be the worst of them all! Though perhaps, that was what happened when one chose a child not for the sake of the child but for the sake of the alliances and publicity that such a child could bring. After all, Dorian had not chosen a daughter simply for fun. He'd chosen one to raise the numbers in his court and he had intentionally chosen a very beautiful girl with the hopes that some good creature from another kingdom would ask for her hand in marriage, expanding Dorian's power without him ever needing to lift a finger! But no, although he had chosen the prettiest girl in the area, she was just so stubborn and withdrawn that, so far, she had offered nothing to Dorian's court except a lot of headaches and arguments. His plan to create the perfect little royal family had backfired and he wasn't too eager to try again, so Alison had no siblings.

And while Dorian continued to turn these rueful, bitter, regretful and angry thoughts over in his head, Alison turned her eyes outward, away from her father and back towards the rest of the ball. Her eyes swept sadly, pensively, around the room. Grand and glorious as her life and this party both were, they all rung hollow to her, meant nothing to her, and an inexplicable sadness would wash over her whenever she thought of it. Although she knew, inherently, that she ought to be far more grateful than she was, she was unable to force out even the slightest bit of happiness with this life she was currently living. It did not matter how beautiful it was, nor how spoiled she, herself, was, it was all just so meaningless, pointless and empty! How could she ever be content with a life like that? Answer: she wasn't, and that was the problem.

At last, the young woman left her father's side, not even bothering to ask his permission because she knew already that it would please him for her to leave his sight. So, without a single sound, she turned away from the king and began to walk off. But sure enough, as soon as she was gone, Dorian sighed, already feeling himself relax a little with her out of his sight. He took a sip of blood from his golden goblet and felt his spirits return to him at once. Alison was not going to ruin this party for him, not tonight! Let her skulk and sulk all she wanted, this was his party, not hers! So while Alison moved further and further away from the party, Dorian got back into the swing of things in no time flat, a small crowd gathering at his feet once again once they saw Alison depart from his side. Ahhhh, this was the life!

But while Dorian went further into the party, Alison went further out of it, passing through several old, cold, dark, stone hallways until she reached the castle's front door. She walked straight through it, leaving the big, old pile of rock that she called a home behind her, nothing but the dark forest in front of her. She walked right out of the castle grounds and deeper and deeper into the forest, unafraid. She walked on until she was totally alone, even the uproarious sounds of the ball lost to her ears. Finally, Alison smiled. For the first time that whole day, she relaxed, taking in a breath of the moonlit air. She may not have needed air anymore, but sometimes a lungful of the cool, crisp wind made her feel alive again...

But Alison's little moment of privacy was ruined when she heard something step on a branch right behind her. Without a single second of hesitation, the vampire princess whipped around and entered a battle stance, hissing violently into the night as she bared her fangs.

"Who goes there?!" she demanded boldly, and even though she couldn't see anyone, she was suddenly aware that she could smell them. It smelled one part human, one part something else, and all parts threatening. Looks like Alison was going to get that fight after all...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: So, as you can see, I'm writing an Alison-centric, Escape the Night S2 Prequel. For that, no YouTubers will appear. If that disappoints, I'm sorry, but I honestly am more interested about the side-character's stories than the YouTubers (no offense to the YouTubers). Additionally, I apologize for any canon I ruin with this fic, please don't hate me! LOL. 
> 
> Also, just a quick sidenote, this castle that Dorian and Alison are in right now is NOT the Victorian mansion in S2. That'll come later. This is a totally different castle. Just wanted to clarify!
> 
> Also also, shout out to canufeelthemagictonight and Leah Merone (AO3 author and fan YouTuber of EtN) for inspiring this fic and really kick-starting my intrigue with EtN, (S2 in particular because, in case you can't already tell, I adore Alison). 
> 
> Now read on to see who Alison's mysterious attacker is. It's another familiar face, a character I think you'll all know and like.


	2. The Strange Voice

At first, no one responded to Alison's demand. She hissed again, fangs fully extended and visible, glinting in the moonlight. Though she was a rather quiet, withdrawn, demure and reserved girl who did not like unnecessary death, violence or destruction, Alison did still enjoy a good battle every now and then. And she was really good at it too! Alongside being a princess, Alison was also a very fierce, fearsome warrior. She had never once lost a battle, and all of the vampire court could attest to it. They all knew that, although she erred on the side of pacifism, she wouldn't hesitate to fight, or even kill, if push came to shove.

And tonight, as unhappy with life as she was, Alison did not plan on going down without a serious fight. She would defend herself to the very last breath, and it would not be her last breath either, so whoever it was, out there in the shadows, it would be in their best interest to beware. Alison was still a very prideful creature at heart and she was more than ready to attack. She deepened her fighting stance, still on high alert.

"Come on!" she whispered to her unseen attacker. "Hit me with your best shot! You won't escape the night if you think you can defeat me!"

But for another few seconds, only silence reigned in the air. Alison finally lost patience. Even if this stranger meant no harm, Alison still knew it was there, so the least it could do would be to answer her fairly and make its presence known instead of hiding out in the shadows like some assassin. The vampire tried one last time to call out to her invisible company.

"Who goes there?!" she repeated. "Come out and show yourself! Reveal yourself! For I am not afraid of you, and if you had any sense of honor or courage, you would come out to fight me, face to face!" her desire for battle began to rise up in her chest with every word out of her fanged mouth. She tossed her head almost boastfully. "As the princess of the vampires, I command you to-" but before she could finish, someone finally replied.

"Whoa! A princess? Really? Cool! And a vampire princess at that!" she heard the voice laugh, but it was not mocking, scoffing or disbelieving. Instead, it sounded delighted and amazed. Alison was so shocked by such a jovial and unbothered response that, just for a second, her composure slipped. Who the heck was this? The strange voice sounded like it belonged to a young woman, even younger than Alison herself (or rather, younger than what she appeared to be. Doing the math, Alison should've been a very old lady at this point, but she still looked like someone only in their early 20s). This voice sounded even younger than that, but strangest of all, to Alison, was how unafraid the voice sounded. Despite Alison's best attempt at intimidation and dominance, the voice sounded more amazed and interested than anything else.

"I didn't even know they had monarchies! How cool!" the strange voice continued, still sounding quite delighted, but at last, such an interested remark finally managed to rouse Alison from her surprised, confused stupor. Although the voice had not meant this statement to be one of disrespect, Alison still took it as such. To her, this remark implied that the person believed that vampires were either too stupid or too savage to ever have the capability of banding together and forming an organized unit. Naturally, this wounded Alison's ego and she responded accordingly.

"Of course they do, you ignorant little peasant!" she snapped. "In fact, we possess a very elaborate and intricate form of government! It is a fully functioning society! A carefully organized hierarchy! Do you think vampires are only just a bunch of mindless, man-eating monsters?! No! Of course not! We are a highly skilled and sophisticated, intellectual species! Far beyond that of a common mortal human!"

Alison's sense of vampiric pride, though she did not have much, was shining through and bleeding into a bit of a superiority complex against other humans as she continued to lecture this stranger for the rather careless remark. Maybe Alison didn't enjoy being a vampire and maybe she didn't enjoy being a part of King Dorian's court, but even she respected vampire law enough to have developed some sense of arrogance over the years regarding her heightened physical and mental abilities. She was far stronger, smarter and faster than any human would ever be, didn't that warrant some level of respect? Or were all humans so daft that they believed the rumors of vampires being too savage to ever create their own functioning society!? Ha! What fools!

"Oh, no, no! Of course not!" the voice replied, sounding genuinely upset now. "Forgive me! I never meant to offend you, your highness! And I swear to you that I never meant to imply that your kind was in any way stupid or inferior! Not at all! Never! It's just that, well, I have never met a vampire before..." the awe slowly returned to the voice's tone after a surprisingly sincere apology.

"And you are an even bigger fool than I thought if you really are so happy about meeting one now," Alison snorted, battle stance slowly loosening up as her subconscious realized that this person was no threat to her. Someone this naive and childish couldn't possibly hurt her!

"Well, it's just that I've been cooped up in my boss' torture chamber for so long that I'm pretty sure I've forgotten what real people look like!" the voice snorted in response to Alison's harsh remark.

"Torture chamber?" without meaning to, a growl entered Alison's voice. Hmmm, maybe not as naive as she thought...

"Now, now, now, I didn't mean that literally!" the voice interrupted Alison's thoughts. "But it is sweet of you to worry," it added a moment later. In that instant, two questions came to Alison's mind. The first one wondered what the voice meant if the torture chamber was not a literal one. The second demand to know if the voice was so sure that she was "sweet". It wasn't exactly an adjective Alison ever thought would be, or even could be, used to describe her. And she was pretty sure no one else that she knew, living or undead, mortal or vampire, monster or human, would've ever used that word to describe her either. Yet here this voice was, so genuinely claiming that she was caring just because she'd asked a question about the "torture chamber" and had mistaken the question to be one of concern on Alison's part. Alison could almost laugh, when such a word didn't honestly give her pause...

"Yeah, it's just his little robotics workshop," the voice continued when Alison failed to say anything. "He's a mechanic, after all, a designer and engineer! He works in the art of machinery and building. And I'm his assistant. I've been so ever since I was about 15!" the voice paused, sounding quite pleased, but then a somber air returned to the conversation. "Cool as it may sound, however, my boss has suddenly gotten into something of a robot craze. That is, for the past few months, his entire life has revolved around trying to make robots! And that isn't anywhere near as cool as it sounds! Or, well, I mean, for the first little while it was, but now? Well, of late, it's become kind of creepy. Our whole store looks like a morgue right now, what with all the bodies and body parts... all fake of course! But they're just kind of... strewn about. Everywhere. Bodyless heads, headless bodies, scattered limbs, wires sticking out of empty eye sockets..." Alison heard the voice pause to shudder. "It kind of looks like a torture chamber and, honestly, almost feels like one at times too. It may all be fake, but it's not easy to spend all your life living around, and working with, nothing but body parts. And it really doesn't help if the only other living, breathing thing there is your cranky old boss..."

As the voice finally finished telling the story to Alison, Alison thought she could hear a note of despair within the voice and she suddenly felt a strange rush of... something, bubbling up inside of her. It was a strange feeling that she lacked a name for. All she knew was that this story made her feel just as trapped and lonely as the voice had been even though Alison, herself, had never even seen this workshop at all.

"And I'm guessing that's why you came here, then?" the vampire asked to fill the unhappy silence between her and the voice. "To get away from it all? And him? Your boss?" her voice was unexpectedly gentle, especially compared to earlier when she had been hissing threats and insults.

"Yeah," the voice replied. "I snuck out for a change of scenery. Could only do it at night, though, 'cause I know he won't be too happy to know I'm here instead of back home and resting up for another day of work tomorrow. Still couldn't help myself, though. I had to come out and see something else, just once, before I go back. Had to see something else that was alive, at least once..."

"And what will your boss do when he finds out that you are gone?" Alison almost found herself growing angry at this cruel old man for keeping whoever this was locked away for so long and she began to feel that all-too-familiar vampiric venom building up in the back of her throat and slowly coating her fangs, a clear sign of hunger... of thirst. She wanted to know, what exactly would this man do? And would it be enough to warrant a death?... Hold on a minute! Since when did Alison condone senseless killing? She was not like the other vampires! Killing just because she disliked someone was definitely not her style! And why was she suddenly so interested in the life of this stranger and what the boss might do to said stranger? Why was Alison suddenly so... caring?

"Nothing much. Just complain. Like always. Cranky old grandpa!" the voice snickered, seeming unbothered enough. Alison felt a strange wave of relief wash over her despite how conflicted she felt regarding her own feelings for this stranger. Good. At least the stranger would not be harmed for coming outside. "But even if he would, which I know he won't because he needs me too much even if he won't admit it, I would still come out anyway. It's far too lonely and cramped in that lab for me to be happy there for too long. I don't know how he does it, going so long without seeing a single other living being! Aside from me, of course," the voice added.

"Well, I hate to tell you this, but, I'm not exactly alive myself," Alison couldn't help but deadpan, but it earned a genuine laugh in reply. Alison was surprised at the second wave of relief she felt from receiving such a positive reaction.

"Perhaps that is so, but you are still a very nice change of pace from what I am used to seeing. You are no robot, and that is good enough!" the voice was still laughing a little, clearly amused by Alison's sense of dry wit.

"Good enough? I might take personal offense to such an insipid remark!" Alison continued in the same sarcastic humor she'd used before.

"Ah, forgive me, your majesty!" the voice snickered, and Alison could almost imagine the stranger bowing playfully to her, even though she still could not see anyone...

"Who are you, please?" as Alison remembered that she still had yet to see so much as a single inch of this stranger despite having carried on a pretty decent conversation, the vampire began to worry again, and an inexplicable wave of sadness and loneliness washed over her as she made another request for the stranger to come out of hiding and face her head on. This time, though, there was no threat or anger in Alison's voice, just that sad curiosity of one longing for a friend and fearing that the friend was about to leave forever, without another sound or look left behind.

That was a thought Alison found quite unbearable, even though the idea of her considering this stranger that she still hadn't even seen yet as a friend was quite laughable. But still, Alison really did feel quite drawn to whoever it was and she wanted desperately to know the face of the one she was conversing with, not just out of curiosity, but for the sake of one single memory to hold onto in the future, for surely this person wouldn't be crazy enough to ever come back. Not while knowing that this was vampire territory! So Alison needed this one face, this one shred of realism and humanity, to hold onto, and to remind her that she hadn't just been hallucinating and talking to herself this time. In the same way this person had come out to see someone else alive, Alison needed that same connection, and she didn't want the stranger to go before giving it to her. Just this one little piece to hold onto while she was stuck back in the vampire courts...

"Show yourself. Please, show yourself," Alison continued to plead gently and, at last, her wish was granted.

"Ok. Very well," the voice finally agreed. "But promise me you won't freak out when I appear?"

"I promise!" Alison replied, straightening her back both with interest and seriousness.

"Ok then..." the voice replied, then suddenly, a person finally came into view. It was, as Alison had guessed, a young woman, younger than herself by maybe a few years at most. This young woman had short, sandy hair and rich brown eyes. She also wore a long-sleeved, cream-colored shirt. Most of it was covered by a brown leather corset. And she wore long brown leggings with matching brown boots, a strange sight to Alison, who was more used to seeing women in skirts and heels. She, herself, was wearing her trademark black dress tonight after all, with black heels to match. But the strangest thing of all about this young woman was the weird, clunky device strapped to her back...

"The name's Jetpack Girl!" finally, a face was put with a voice and friendly hand extended itself out towards Alison.

"Ummmm," was all Alison could say as she tentatively took the hand that this Jetpack Girl (that seriously wasn't her name, right?!) offered her.

"And this is my invisibility cloak!" Jetpack Girl continued, holding up her other hand to reveal what it was she had used to conceal herself from Alison's sight for so long. It just looked like a simple black cloth, but Jetpack Girl promised her that this was not the case.

"Simple, though it may be, it's actually some pretty serious tech!" she bragged, grinning from ear to ear. "Y'see, I basically connected up a bunch of cloaking panels through a wiring system inside the cloth so that the cloak itself is coated in multiple tiny little panels, each that transmit an image of whatever is behind it so that anyone under the cloak is missed because all you see is what should be there if they weren't!" she continued to explain while Alison could only stand there and stare, hardly understanding any of the techno-babble that this "Jetpack Girl" girl was saying. Thus was the start of a very strange but very beautiful friendship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Congrats to AquaEclipse for guessing it! Jetpack Girl was the one hiding in the shadows! 
> 
> And yes, in my canon, she and Alison were old friends, even though the webseries gave no indication of that.
> 
> Also, originally, this chapter was going to be longer and was going to look more in depth at Alison and Jetpack Girl's relationship, but that made it too long, so I'm splitting it in half. Tonight is Alison and Jetpack Girl meeting. Tomorrow night is that closer look at their growing friendship. 
> 
> Read on for some Alison and Jetpack Girl fluff (platonic IMO because I don't ship them, even though I definitely see them both as queer women) and read on to see what Jetpack Girl's "real" name is.


	3. Nightly Adventures

From that night on, whenever it was possible, Alison would flee her father's castle to seek Jetpack Girl, or JPG as Alison began to call her, out. And it always went this way, with Alison being the one to come calling on JPG, and never the other way around. Initially, JPG had been somewhat hurt and embarrassed by this arrangement, wanting to be the one to come calling on Alison at least once, but as time passed, Alison was finally able to instill some of her level-headedness into the fiery JPG and get her to see why having JPG try to call on Alison would be a bad idea.

"What if you came calling one night and I couldn't go because of my father? Or what if one of the other vampires of my father's court would find you before I did?" Alison had demanded of the spunky little inventor and, finally, JPG seemed to get the picture. Although she still felt bad that she was never the instigator of their nightly adventures, forced into being the passive one instead, she had to admit that Alison had a point. It wouldn't exactly be good if JPG were ever to meet the wrong vampire, and after hearing Alison complain enough about the kind of vampires she had to deal with in her father's court, JPG wasn't exactly keen upon ever meeting a vampire again.

"You're lucky that out of all the vampires to cross paths with, I was the one you met!" Alison had told the inventor. "It could've been anyone else in the almost 100 vampires that my father has! And they wouldn't have let your talk carry on as long as I did!"

"Ok, ok, I get the picture!" JPG had promised as Alison finished another lecture about why JPG needed to be more careful and less reckless. But she really did. Although a small part of JPG did still want to return to the vampire castle and explore it properly, like she had intended upon doing the night she met Alison, Alison had finally convinced her that it was far safer to wait and let Alison come to her instead of the other way around.

"I guess I can wait," JPG admitted defeat and dropped the subject, consenting to the idea of letting Alison be the one to come calling.

"Good," Alison replied, breathing a sigh of relief. Wait. What? Breathing a sigh of relief? Sure, Alison had grown fonder and fonder of JPG the more and more nights they spent together, but why was the vampire princess suddenly so invested in her safety as well? Sure, it made logical sense for Alison to worry. And yes, it was natural for a vampire to be quite possessive and protective, especially when it came to something (or someone) that the vampire cared about, but this was such a different type and level of possessiveness that Alison really had no idea what to make of it.

All she knew was that she was more concerned for JPG's wellbeing than what would be considered normal. In fact, as their nightly adventures bled into months, Alison occasionally found herself fantasizing about betraying her own kingdom, her own family, just to keep JPG safe if it ever came to that. It didn't even matter that JPG had made good on her vow never to return to the vampire castle, Alison could still see herself willingly defying and fighting every vampire she knew to the death to save and protect JPG. And that was the crazies part of all! How far Alison felt willing to go if it meant JPG would be ok. Alison would even defy her own father...

Now, it wasn't uncommon for a vampire to be willing to fight, or even kill, their own kin for something that they really wanted. Despite the powerful bonds that vampires forged with one another, even those could be altered or forsaken if something the vampire wanted more would be given in exchange for that momentary lapse in the bond. This was what Alison was going through, feeling the connection between herself and Dorian physically fading away the longer she hung out with JPG until it was JPG who had Alison's loyalty and not Dorian. As unexpected and incredible as this happenstance was, it was neither impossible, nor was in uncommon. What was uncommon, however, was the impetus that made the bond break. Seldom did a vampire ever turn against one of their own for the sake of a human companion that they cared for, yet that was exactly what had happened with Alison and JPG, even though JPG didn't know it. But Alison did, and that was all that mattered. She knew that her loyalty had shifted, and she would never go back to the way she used to be. Not when, at last, she had finally made a real friend that she actually liked.

And so, for almost a year, Alison and JPG spent as many nights together as they could and went on many nightly adventures. Of course, sometimes JPG was too tired to do more than chat for an hour or two and other nights, Alison was forced to remain back home and attend one of Dorian's parties or meetings, but most nights, the two young women were free to roam the little town JPG called home with only the stars and each other for company. Sometimes, though, they found more than enough entertainment waiting for them right in JPG and Cedric's own little store...

"Oooh, and what is this?" Alison demanded with a cheeky grin as she picked up an old apron that looked like it was intentionally hidden. It was shoved haphazardly into a toolbox, after all. Not exactly where the aprons went.

"Oh! That's nothing!" JPG saw what was in Alison's hand and lunged for it. She missed by a longshot, Alison easily sidestepping her swipe.

"Oh really? Then what is this 'Fanny Martin' name?" Alison squinted through the dim candle light that illuminated the workshop to read the name stitched in large letters on the very front of the apron.

"It's nothing!" JPG repeated, but she was blushing now. Alison could see it in the candle's glow.

"Please don't tell me that's your real name," Alison's voice was almost totally flat, only the slightest note of amusement there to indicate that she found the situation funny, but because JPG knew full well that Alison wasn't a very expressive or visually emotional person, to her, that one note of amusement was worse than if Alison had just burst out laughing instead (which was something she would never do).

"It's nothing!" JPG repeated, trying again to get the dirty old apron out of Alison's clutches. Like before, she failed.

"I can't believe it! Your name is Fanny Martin?!" the vampire gave a soft, breathy laugh. It was more of a loud exhale than anything, but to JPG, it may as well have been a loud cackle. How humiliating! Alison, meanwhile, was reveling in the moment. Although JPG had been correct in knowing that Alison would never laugh loudly, since she was not that expressive in any of her emotions, even the really good ones, Alison really was having the time of her life, watching JPG struggle fruitlessly to hide the truth behind her real name. Even though Alison knew, all along, that there was no way "Jetpack Girl" was anything other than an alias, for some reason, finally getting JPG's real name was just too funny for words. Especially with a name like Fanny Martin. And all of Alison's amusement was conveyed in a little smirk as she continued to hold the apron away.

"Is it any wonder I tried to craft a nickname for myself as fast as I could?" JPG grumbled, finally yanking the apron out of Alison's hands when the vampire finally lowered her arm a little for JPG to, at last, make a successful attempt at retrieving it. "I think I only wore this thing for a day before I tossed it and demanded that Cedric give me this one," JPG turned around to an apron hanging on a peg by the wall. Unlike the one Alison had found, it was very visible and far cleaner. That was what had tipped Alison off that the Fanny apron was supposed to be forgotten. It was covered in a layer of dust and had been hidden away in the corner of the workshop.

"I've always hated my name," JPG continued as she tossed her original apron back into the rusty old bin where Alison had gotten it from. "But having it emblazoned upon my chest for the whole world to see? That was where I drew the line. I demanded that Cedric make me a new one, using my new name!" JPG puffed out her chest as she turned to the apron on the wall. Across its chest in large letters was "Jetpack Girl". Hanging beside it were two more aprons. One read "Cedric Bennett" and the other was more of a chest-protector than an apron. Like JPG's corset, it was made of a very firm leather. No doubt, Cedric wore it for protection when working on more dangerous projects. Embedded right in the chest of the piece was a large yellow gem. According to JPG, Cedric had found the gem in a stream that ran through the edge of their tiny town and had decided to keep it, its hypnotic beauty refusing to ever let him sell it even though it was apparently worth more than the entire store and everything in it.

"And you thought Jetpack Girl was a better name?" Alison teased as she followed JPG's gaze over to the cleaner, hung up aprons.

"Anything is better than Fanny!" JPG replied with a grimace and Alison couldn't exactly disagree. Although a few vampires had made fun of her for having such a strange and outlandish name, at least Alison could brag that 'Alison' used to be a popular name in the medieval times. It might've been part of what attracted Dorian to her. 'Alison' was such an old-fashioned name in the late 1800s that it probably caught his eye, although even he wasn't quite that old, having been turned in the 1600s instead. But Fanny? That was just a stupid sounding name across the board.

"Besides, I've always wanted to be an inventor!" JPG added, steering the conversation away from her birthname and back to the history of her nickname. "Ever since I was a kid, I had wanted to create mechanical wonders! Taking on an apprenticeship under Cedric was like wanting to be a princess and being offered a throne! Of course I took his apprenticeship! And in fact, that was one of my first handmade inventions while working with him: a jetpack!" JPG gestured to the large box that never left her back. So that was where JPG got her nickname. Her very first original creation that wasn't something Cedric tasked her to build. It was actually kind of a cute history...

"But does it actually work?" Alison queried, partly teasing and partly serious. She had actually never seen JPG use her trademark and ever-present jetpack even once in all their months of knowing each other.

"Sort of," JPG replied and Alison gave her a smug look. "Hey! Listen! I made it when I was 16 in my spare time out of spare parts that Cedric didn't need for his main inventions! Cut me a break!" the inventor warned the vampire, pointing a finger at Alison's smirk. "Besides, it does fly!" she promised. "Sure, the fuel maxes out pretty fast and the thrusters only work about half the time, but how do you think I even made it all the way up to your castle at all?" she demanded, and Alison had to admit that the thought had never occurred to her.

Sure, Alison always wondered how JPG had been able to find the vampire castle at all, what with it being in such a secluded and isolated area, but she had always assumed that JPG had just been exploring the forest and mountain trails. Now, Alison was finally realizing that JPG had actually been searching the skies...

"I had been testing it out, flying overhead, when I saw your castle. I made a loop back and landed in the forests so I wouldn't just appear straight out of the sky and scare you all," JPG explained.

"Probably a wise decision for multiple reasons in hindsight," Alison muttered and JPG had to agree.

"But do you think it works right now? Like, could you show me how you fly tonight?" Alison asked next, totally sincere.

"I could try," JPG replied. "But I make no promises. Like I said, although it is technically a functional jetpack, the odds of it functioning are not as high as I would like it to be," she admitted and Alison bit back a snarky remark about it not being so functional if the success rate was so low. Instead, she held her tongue as JPG led her outside and revved up the jetpack's noisy, smoky engines.

It took about 10 minutes, eight tries and three and a half restarts, but JPG did eventually get her feet off the ground and, the longer she hovered in the air, the higher she went until she was finally in a position where she was actually flying around Cedric's workshop. The shop was actually two stories high. The first story was the ground floor, which was where the main shop and lab were. It was where the customers came and went and where Cedric and JPG did all their work. The upstairs was where the pair lived. It contained a kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom. Cedric slept in the bedroom and JPG in the living room. Now, with JPG flying around the workshop, Alison worried that the roaring engines of her jetpack would wake Cedric, but once JPG's tanks finally ran out of fuel (which took about 20 minutes), she landed back down safely in front of Alison and promised her otherwise. Cedric was old, hard of hearing, and a very heavy sleeper.

"I could probably fly around his room and he still wouldn't wake up!" the inventor chucked as she finally, for the first time since Alison had known her, removed her jetpack from her back in order to refill the fuel tanks.

"Well, let's not try that, shall we?" Alison joked. She actually had never met Cedric before, visiting only after he was asleep, but from what JPG had said about him, he sounded rather rude and selfish and even almost sexist at times. Alison didn't need more of that in her life.

"Don't worry about that either," JPG promised with a laugh. "To be honest, his room his so tiny that I wouldn't be able to do more than float in the doorway!" once she finished filling the jetpack's tanks, she returned the pack to her back. Alison briefly wondered if she slept with it on.

After that little event with the jetpacks, however, Alison and JPG resumed a more mundane event: idle chatter. But even though it was idle chatter, there was more than enough story to tell so that even something like a simple conversation could be considered one of their nightly adventures. In fact, at one point, JPG even regaled a tale in which Cedric had tried to create fancy dress pants that would help someone waltz but had instead gotten stuck inside his own invention and been forced to do the tango until JPG was finally able to literally saw them off of him. JPG even pantomimed the whole story, grabbing Cedric's chest plate from its peg by the door and pretending that her own leather trousers were the disaster dress pants that Cedric had built. She danced comically around Alison, the large yellow gem flickering in the candlelight. Alison watched JPG's antics with that same little half-smile she always wore. JPG knew, however, that Alison may as well have been laughing right along with the story. Above their heads, Cedric was still deep asleep, totally unaware that his assistant was currently making fun of him to a vampire princess.

"For one who claims little to no interesting life stories, you certainly do have quite a few good tales to tell," Alison said once JPG finally finished her story, panting as she returned Cedric's chest plate to its peg on the wall. JPG's face had turned red in reply, but even more so than when Alison had been teasing her about her name. Additionally, since JPG had returned to sit beside Alison once the chest plate was hung up again, Alison got to see all that blush in far more detail than before, when she had been trying to keep her distance from JPG in order to prevent her from reclaiming her old apron. To see all that warm redness coursing through JPG's pale cheeks, especially in such close proximity, made Alison a little uncomfortable, and she looked away. Seeing all of that warm redness reminded the vampire just what lay beneath the fragile skin on JPG's face and that was not something she wanted to think about...

It had come with time but, at long last, Alison finally realized why she had been so... against the vampires. Even though they had all treated her well enough, too afraid to dare disrespect her outright, she had never found true happiness with any of them because she never truly accepted their core identity: blood drinkers. Even after all this time, Alison had never truly made her peace with what she and the rest of her kind ate to survive, and that was what put her at odds with all the others for all of this time. While Alison, herself, partook in this activity for the sake of her own health and survival, she had never been like the other ones, reveling in the gore and agony of victims. She had never been like the other ones, enjoying the thrill of the kill or the wild and savage feeling that came with the hunt. Instead, she had always tried to feast on victims that were either already dead (that is, she never ate Warm Ones the way her cruel father did) or she would at least try to administer a quick and painless deathblow before drinking her fill.

While the others turned drinking into fun and games, displays of strength and terror, Alison only ever did it out of necessity, and that was where the difference between her and the other vampires was. Sure, the whole court drank blood, but Alison's style was so different from the others that she was a bit of a freak when compared to the rest of the court. And thought she had never felt any true love for any of these humans, it still had caused her great emotional distress to see them in so much pain as they were drained of their blood. She just had never realized what it was until she met JPG. That first meeting, that first friendship, had been what finally gave Alison a name for the strange feeling she felt whenever she watched a human suffer. It had been the strange feeling she had felt when JPG had expressed her troubles with her boss. It was empathy.

Simple empathy had always prevented Alison from reaching her truest and fullest potential as a vampire, no matter how many times anyone had ever tried to set the stage up for her to do so. And even she, herself, had fought long and hard to become just like the others, but in the end, that one, little, unquenchable feeling of empathy had prevented her from ever truly, truly relishing in the blood and agony of her victims. It was why she'd always been an outcast of the court, why she had never liked any of the others, why she had always felt so lonely despite being surrounded by a gaggle of other marvelous creatures. It was her sense of empathy, that very few other creatures seemed to possess. It was what made her different, and she could not get rid of it, no matter how hard she tried. That tiny little difference created a vast separation between her the and the rest of the world which she lived in.

The only way her empathy could be even a little bit removed was if her victim was someone who deserved the fate they were going to suffer at the fangs of the vampires, but what did her father care about that? He brought in whomever he saw fit, which meant that a lot of innocent blood was often shed in his presence. Alison had tried to ensure that she only drained victims who deserved death, but it wasn't exactly easy to distinguish the good from the bad in this world, especially not when every single person, dead or alive, each had good and evil deeds to their name. Besides, they were all quite the same when they reached Dorian's silver platter: cowering, crying and begging for their lives. How could Alison get an honest confession out of that?

Alison's sense of empathy had made it so that she still tried her hardest to be a picky eater, even though such ideas and actions embarrassed her father greatly. How many times had he called her a disappointment for refusing to join in on some of his more ravishing feasts? Alison had lost count. But she had also lost care. At least for him. Although she still felt a kinship to him, a loyalty to him, there was no longer any love, not that there was ever much to begin with. Instead, thanks to JPG, Alison had sort of come around, finally being able to place not only her feelings, but how she felt about those feelings. Alison had been able not only to figure out why exactly she'd always been such an outcast amongst the other vampires, but also whether or not she was going to try to continue this path, or do a reverse and attempt to fix the root of her problem. Obviously, her choice had been to follow the former path, the path that continued to isolate her from the others just so her mind could be at ease.

And it was all thanks to the strange little clockwork child who spent her days in the lab, working with her boss to create miracles of life through machinery, and then her nights going on nightly adventures with Alison herself. This strange little inventor had reinvented Alison, giving her new life the same way she gave new life to her robots. For the first time in years, Alison felt as though her life had meaning and purpose again, and she felt genuinely happy. She no longer felt so alone in life, and it was all thanks to JPG...

But all of this revelry came to an end when, upon one particular night, Alison was forbidden from leaving the castle because Dorian was about to receive a most special guest that would turn their whole world upside down forever...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Just a quick reminder, these locations are NOT the mansion in the webseries. This is another part of "real world" England where JPG and Cedric live. In my canon, before coming to the mansion, the two owned a workshop together that also doubled as their home. Cedric is the owner and JPG the apprentice. 
> 
> And a quick heads up, I don't ship Alison and JPG and nothing in this chapter was meant to be read as romantic, however, if you want to read it that they become girlfriends, go ahead. I do like the idea of Alison and JPG being queer women, I just can't really envision them together, even though this chapter may seem to argue otherwise. (It's mostly because I honestly ship Riley and JPG more). But if you wish to read this as though Alison and JPG are a couple, go ahead. 
> 
> And in regard to names? "Bennett" is Cedric's actor's last name and Martin is JPG's actor's last name. Fanny was entirely made up, however, because I wanted to do the "they have a nickname because they hate their real name" trope so I had to choose a really embarrassing name for JPG. (Sorry to any of those out there who are named "Fanny" or who like the name. I hope you aren't too offended that JPG hates the name).
> 
> Now read on to meet Dorian's mysterious guest...


	4. The Sorceress

"I don't know where you go off to every night and, frankly, I don't care," Dorian had told Alison one night, cutting her off before she could reach the castle door to leave for her nightly adventures with JPG. "Tonight, however, you must stay," he said.

"What? What do you mean? Why?" Alison demanded. As he grabbed her arm to pull her back to the throne room, she began to pull away. Because of her time with JPG, Alison's loyalty to Dorian had decayed to a point in which she didn't mind getting into minor physical scuffles with him now. Before then, it had only ever been morose remarks and bitter arguments, but now, the two engaged in a tug-of-war of sorts, Alison pulling one way and Dorian the other and neither of them willing to surrender to the other.

"Because, I am having a rather... special guest, coming tonight," Dorian responded, frowning as he tried again to pull Alison away from the door and back to the castle's throne room. He was fighting hard to keep his temper tonight, but Alison was really pushing it with such outward defiance. "This guest could be prepared to offer me the deal of the century, and I will not allow such a magnificent opportunity slip through my fingers just because you could not control yourself and, for once in your life, act like a proper princess!" he continued, voice growing louder and angrier the longer he and Alison carried on in their physical and verbal battle. Why did she have to be so stubborn? So impetuous and impudent?!

"But why, then, father, keep me around if you fear that I will mess up your deal?" Alison argued, still trying to reach the door.

"Because! She has demanded the presence of all of us," Dorian snapped, still holding fast to Alison's arm. "She has insisted that she meet the entire royal family and, if we fail to do as she commands, she will not offer us anything!" Alison couldn't help but scoff at this.

"Since when did you take orders from strangers?" she demanded of her father, but Dorian didn't answer, having noticed that Alison was no longer struggling to pull away. Apparently, her amusement and disdain at him confessing to obeying the words of a stranger had caught her ears long enough to convince her to stop fighting. He took the chance to lead her back down the long, dark corridors of the castle and to the throne room.

"And what even is this deal, anyway?" Alison demanded as soon as she and Dorian were seated in their respective thrones. It was not Dorian who answered this question, however. Instead, it was Susanna, his wife and queen, who was already seated upon her throne. Hers and Dorian's were the exact same while Alison's was a few sizes smaller. Susanna sat on Dorian's right hand and Alison on his left. Susanna looked over her husband to give her wayward adopted daughter a withering look. It was a sharp, chiding glare, laced with disgust and disdain, and the irritation was clear in her voice when she answered Alison's snide question.

"Our visitor is a woman, far more powerful than your father and I combined," Queen Susanna began and Alison was surprised by this remark. Her parents never admitted to being the weaker ones in a situation! Yet here they were now, admitting that this visitor was stronger than both of them, combined no less! Alison couldn't help but feel slightly curious, if not intrigued.

"She has promised to grant us an immense amount of fame, fortune, land, subjects, servants, and prey, if only we allow her to speak with us for this one night," the vampire queen continued. "But she has demanded of us that we all be in attendance tonight. That is why you, Alison, must be here as well!" Susanna then bared her fangs threateningly at her troublesome daughter, her tone going from disdainful to downright angry. "And I am warning you now, child. Keep your mouth shut! Do not ruin this for us!" she snapped, but Alison gave her no reply. Alison knew her mother hated her just as much as her father did, so being yelled at by Susanna was no different than being yelled at by Dorian. Susanna didn't scare or bother Alison anymore than Dorian did and they all knew it. Susanna gave another hiss as she watched Alison slump back in her throne and cross her arms. Just as Dorian had asked himself minutes ago, Susanna found herself wondering why their child was so impudent and impetuous.

But after a moment of silence, Alison piped up with another question. Unlike the last one, however, this one was serious and sincere.

"Do you not question the legitimacy of this claim?" she asked. "Do you not wonder if this promise, this meeting, might be a trick or trap? Is your new friend really all that she claims to be? Or is this just some lie to try and steal power from our kingdom?" Alison pressed. It was an honest concern asked in an honest manner, but because neither Dorian nor Susanna wanted to think about that, they both waved Alison's fears off.

Suddenly, then, the entire throne room was illuminated by a blinding flash, almost like a bolt of lightning. Once the light died back down, however, what met the eyes of the three vampires was beyond words. It was the strangest looking woman that any of them had ever seen...

"Your majesties!" she cried dramatically. "I am so glad you agreed to my meeting! Shall we commence with our deal?" then without waiting for an answer, she waved her large wooden staff and began to introduce herself and all her life-changing promises.

Over the course of the next couple of hours, Alison came to learn that this woman, who went only by the title "the Sorceress", had traveled across space and time itself, honing her magic and looking for a good place to settle down and set up a base. It was her goal that, once she became strong enough, she would have enough magic to subdue the entire universe and every single dimension within it. She was out for universal conquest in which she would build and empire that spanned from dimension to dimension, and she would be at its helm. But she had not come to Dorian's castle in order to threaten him or demand that he surrender his castle for her benefit. Instead, she had come to forge an alliance.

The Sorceress claimed to have met Dorian at one of his more recent parties, picking up an invitation along the way and deciding to stick her head in for a few hours, though from the shadows at first, which was why neither he nor Susanna nor Alison ever remembered seeing her. She told Dorian that she had been awestruck by his raw strength, wealth, power, splendor and fame and now she wanted him by her side when she went forth in her universal conquest. He was not expected to give up anything at the moment, except his word that he would be willing to stand by her.

In exchange for a pledge of allegiance, Dorian would receive a hundredfold of what he already possessed. He would receive a newer, bigger, better home filled with all sorts of priceless treasures and he would have an entire estate of servants at his bidding with an endless supply of humans to feed from. His name would live on forever, just like he would. The Sorceress promised that, as long as her conquest and control continued, so too would his own and, together, they would do a great deal of powerful things. She would give him power if he gave her loyalty. She would give him part of her future empire if he gave her a part of his present kingdom.

And as the midnight meeting carried on, Dorian and Susanna both grew more and more intrigued with this Sorceress lady. They began to lean forward in their thrones, stroking their chins as their eyes lit up with interest. It was clear that her honeyed words and wild promises were starting to get to them. Alison, however, remained tight-lipped and stone-faced. In the face of the Sorceress' promise, Alison was unmoved, far too skeptical to see the woman as anything other than a loon with a stick. In Alison's eyes, the Sorceress was no goddess, but a common warmonger. Even if she meant every word she said about total domination and an alliance with the vampire kingdom, she was still nothing more than your typical, average aristocrat, offering promises and compliments with one breath while demanding undying loyalty in return with the next. Maybe Dorian and Susanna were smitten, but Alison saw right through the Sorceress' flattering lies. She was nothing but another charlatan with money. She was just another wannabe dictator looking for powerful friends to recruit. She was nothing Alison hadn't seen before.

And what really cemented Alison's distrust and disdain with the Sorceress and her lies was in a little habit that the woman had managed to pick up over the last couple of hours. She would not stop staring at the pendant hanging around Dorian's neck. Maybe Dorian didn't notice it and maybe even the Sorceress herself didn't notice it, but Alison did. She could see the way the Sorceress' eyes were glued to the red gem at Dorian's throat and it almost made her laugh. Although it was typical of one royal to ogle the wealth of another, the Sorceress was probably the least subtle out of anyone Alison had ever met before. She was amazed Dorian couldn't see it. But a small part of Alison couldn't totally disagree with the Sorceress. Dorian's pendant was pretty special, after all.

Dorian had found this precious gemstone while braving some of the more treacherous mountains several miles north of the castle. The stone had been buried in the face of one of the mountains, so Dorian had dug it out. He was so impressed by its beauty that he wasted no time in consulting several jewelers to try and find out its market value. Every single one of them had promised him that the gem didn't have a price, not because it was worthless, but because it was so very rare that none of them had ever seen such a stone before. Intrigued by such an idea, Dorian then decided to keep the gem as the ultimate symbol of his wealth. It was the one item in his dragon's hoard that nobody else had. Maybe it looked like a normal garnet, but it was worth far more than all the garnets, or even all the diamonds, in the world. Dorian turned it into a necklace after finally understanding just how priceless the red gem was and it hadn't left his neck since. That had been decades and decades ago.

And now the Sorceress was eyeing it like a starving dog eyeing a bone. Alison had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing, not just because it was funny to see how obvious or typical the Sorceress' greed really was, but because Alison knew there was no way in this dimension, or any other, that the Sorceress was going to get Dorian to surrender that. It was one of his most prized possessions after all, and for all her flatteries, even those wouldn't be enough to get Dorian to give the Sorceress his necklace.

But despite this fact, the Sorceress continued to advertise herself and her cause to the vampire monarchs and, in the end, it worked. They were finally sold and they agreed to the Sorceress' terms that, in exchange for an alliance, they would receive an abundant amount of wealth.

"Excellent!" the Sorceress cried triumphantly, then she waved her wooden staff and a contract suddenly appeared in Dorian's lap. He didn't even bother reading it before signing it. As soon as he finished writing the last letter of his name down, the Sorceress waved her staff again and the contract vanished once more. Alison was unimpressed and she fought the urge to roll her eyes.

"Now, your majesties, your carriages await you!" the Sorceress gestured with her wooden staff to the door that led out of the throne room. Dorian and Susanna got up at once, not even looking back as they headed outside. Alison, however, finally dared challenge the Sorceress.

"And what about all of our things? And the rest of our court? You can't really expect us to just go and abandon them now, can you?" the vampire princess almost demanded of the Sorceress. The Sorceress gave her a smile, but Alison could see the poison it in and she knew full well that the Sorceress was outraged at her authority being questioned.

"There are other carriages waiting outside for them as well," the Sorceress promised through her teeth as she walked over to Alison, grabbed her shoulder, and then led her outside. Her grip was surprisingly gentle, but that didn't mean it wasn't commanding and Alison fought the urge to shrug the woman off of her. Maybe the Sorceress wasn't hurting Alison, but Alison hated feeling the Sorceress' hands on her body. "All of your toys and trinkets and the rest of your little vampire friends will be sent for immediately!" the Sorceress promised in a patronizing tone as she continued to lead Alison back down the dark, winding halls of the castle.

Sure enough, waiting right outside in the courtyard was a line of black carriages. They vanished into the darkness, but before Alison could even try and start counting, the Sorceress ushered her into the carriage at the front of the line. Dorian and Susanna were already inside.

"Your things will arrive with you shortly," the Sorceress told them, then without another word, she shut the door. Alison didn't even have time to look out of the window at the life she was leaving behind before she heard the driver utter a cry for the carriage to start moving.

Alison was sure that the carriage had been enchanted, for although the ride physically felt normal, it ended far too soon to be a realistic travel length. It felt like barely 20 minutes had passed before the horses slowed to a halt, but when Alison peeked out of the carriage windows, sure enough, she was in an entirely different world. Gone were the gray mountains and gone was the stony castle that seemed higher even than the sky itself. Instead, she was staring out at a massive mansion resting atop an endless sea of emerald grass, surrounded by divine gardens and other outdoor amenities. No more were the endless stony hills, surrounded by withering forests. Instead, it was nothing but grass, garden and forest, full of life and greenery. They definitely weren't in the mountains anymore... or anywhere even close to them! And it had all happened in mere minutes!

And as for the mansion itself? It was not a castle, but it was almost as grand as one. Although it was not anywhere near as tall as the old castle had been, it was far long and wide enough to compensate. It gave off a warm, glowy, welcoming vibe, quite different from what Alison was used to. The driver hopped down from the carriage seat and opened the door and Alison took her first step into her new home, Dorian and Susanna entering the mansion first, arm in arm and chattering eagerly about all that this new and exciting future would hold. Then, in time, just as the Sorceress had promised, all of the rest of the castle arrived. All of Dorian's possessions, living and non, were successfully relocated, carriage after carriage pulling up and dropping off more and more vampires and other treasures and trinkets.

By the time the last black carriage had pulled up, delivering the last of Dorian's possessions, Dorian and his court were already in the new ballroom, partying the night away in celebration of their new alliance with the Sorceress. Using magic, the Sorceress had quickly set up the mansion to Dorian's liking and then she made an honorary appearance at his party, all the vampires cheering for her as Dorian introduced her. Alison took that opportunity to leave. While all the others were drunk with pleasure, alcohol and excitement, the princess of the vampires slipped away through the nearest door she could find and back towards the main part of the mansion.

Alison wanted desperately to go back to JPG, but because she had no clue at all where this mansion was in relation to where JPG lived, she didn't have the foggiest idea what direction she should head in. At last, the vampire decided to try and find a library. Surely a mansion this large possessed at least one, and surely that library would have a map, or something, that would help her triangulate her position. So, with a goal in mind, Alison wasted no time in leaving her father and his festivities behind to run down the long, brightly-lit halls of the mansion.

After an indefinite amount of time, the vampire achieved her goal. After exiting the ballroom and stumbling into a Green Room and then the Lounge (which held a large portrait of the Sorceress herself hanging right over the hearth), the young vampire finally found the library. Just as she'd hoped, she managed to find several maps. It still took her awhile to get her bearings, but in the end, she accomplished that goal as well. According to all the maps she had studied, Alison was still in England, but much farther south. Her old castle had been very far north, JPG's workshop being in the town 20-some miles southeast of the castle. Now, according to the maps, this mansion was even farther southeast than JPG's shop! From what Alison could tell, this mansion was almost 250 miles south of her castle/JPG's workshop!

And, along with being 250 miles south from home, this mansion was also literally located out in the middle of nowhere. An odd place to build what was possibly meant to be a military base, or at least a central hub for the Sorceress' allies... But Alison was so focused on trying to figure out how to get home that she didn't even think to question why the Sorceress owned a mansion that was so isolated from the rest of the world. Instead, Alison was more focused on an "escape" attempt. It quickly became clear to her that the only way out would be to use one of the Sorceress' black carriages. Alison could only hope that they wouldn't be too hard to find and that she would be allowed to go. She didn't plan on asking permission, not from someone as shady as the Sorceress, so she could only hope to find a generous driver, or that she would learn how to use the carriages to get her back home.

Alison left the library without another look back, only taking a single map before heading outside in search of the stables, or wherever the black carriages might've been kept. She didn't make it far, however, before she ran right into the Sorceress herself.

"And what are you doing out her all by yourself? Shouldn't you be back inside, partying with the others?" the woman asked the vampire with an eerily calm smile. Alison, caught dead in her tracks, was sure that if she'd had a heartbeat, it would've been pounding like mad right now. But even in the face of such surprise and danger, Alison managed to keep her composure and not even the tiniest bit of an emotion flitted across her face. Nor did any inflection at all enter her voice when she dared to answer the Sorceress' reply with seven sharp words:

"I could say the same for you."

The smile the Sorceress gave Alison would've made most vampires quake. Luckily, Alison was not like most other vampires, and even as the Sorceress continued to close in on her with that creepy grin, Alison refused to give the woman so much as an inch of her courage. Instead, she steeled her nerve and met the Sorceress head on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I keep editing this story and it keeps getting longer! Please tell me if the pace ever feels too slow. I can make the chapters shorter and more "adventurey" if the narration (speechless and descriptive) portions of the text start feeling too boring or drawn-out. I tried to end on an ominous note just to keep everyone interested! I swear the next chapter will be a bit more vocal and active (not so descriptive)! But please tell me if this story needs to pick up its pace!
> 
> But now for some notes:
> 
> First, congrats to AquaEclipse for guessing the guest.
> 
> Second, the vampire queen was unnamed in the series, so I used a derivate common in the Victorian Era of the actress' name. Her name is Suzan, but it sounds like the name "Susanna" was what they used back in the 1800s.
> 
> Thirdly, forgive my horrible geography of England, but it's my headcanon that Alison's castle was located somewhere in the northern part of the Peninnes mountain range (possibly the north side of where Lake District National Park is) with the mansion being somewhere near the empty area west of Herefordshire. 
> 
> Fourthly, bad geography aside, we're finally at the mansion! This is the one Joey and friends stumble into during the webseries!
> 
> Fifthly, I hope Dorian and Susanna didn't seem too out-of-character, being so trusting of the Sorceress, but I think it makes sense. I imagine that they did, initially, have suspicions about her, but they figured that even if she were dangerous, they would be able to take her on easily. Remember how arrogant the vampires are. Surely Dorian has enough of a god-complex to assume that even if the Sorceress is a false friend, she is still no threat to him. If only he knew...
> 
> Next chapter, Alison finds a way to return to JPG, but unwittingly brings the Sorceress with her. Or, how JPG joins the mansion.


	5. Several Years

"I merely came out here because I noticed you, running around the grounds as though you were looking for something. Is there any way I may assist?" the Sorceress crooned. Alison almost wished she would stop with the fake pleasantries and call her out for snooping. It would be less tedious and suspenseful, but perhaps that was part of the point. So in the end, the vampire fought fire with fire and answered in the same tone.

"I was merely came out here because I noticed that the grounds had so much to offer. I was exploring my new home," she said easily.

"Ah, a little exploration is good!" the Sorceress gave her an unreadable smile. "Who knows what secrets one may find lurking in the night?"

"There are no secrets that I have found yet," Alison replied with a casual shrug.

There was a brief pause between her and the Sorceress and, in that split second, Alison made a risky gamble.

"There is, however, a secret I would like to know," she dared to say.

"Oh?" even in the dark, Alison could see the way the Sorceress' eyes flashed. There was a mix of anger, wariness, interest and amusement all at once and Alison didn't need more than that to know that she was swimming in dangerous waters. Nevertheless, she persisted and made her request.

"I wish to know where your carriages are," she said, keeping an even and unreadable tone as she made her big request.

"They come and go at my command, and no one else's," the Sorceress replied, voice just as simple and frank as Alison's.

"Ah. Then there was no use for my explorations," Alison shrugged again. "I suppose I should just go back inside instead..." Alison turned to go.

"I wouldn't say that," the Sorceress replied as Alison took her first step back to the mansion.

Back still turned to the Sorceress, Alison felt herself smile just a little bit. In this game of who could keep a better poker face, Alison had just won. By getting the Sorceress to say this, Alison had just confirmed that the Sorceress actually did care about what she had to say. Although the Sorceress pretended to be calm, collected and generally disinterested in Alison, this one little bend within the other woman's icy façade gave Alison the temporary upper hand. She had something that the Sorceress didn't, and it was something the Sorceress wanted: a reason.

"And why is that?" Alison prolonged the Sorceress' curiosity by asking another question instead of answering her implied one and she continued to stand with her back facing the Sorceress.

"Because I can call one to obey you," the Sorceress answered.

"Ah. Then would you be so gracious as to do so?" Alison finally turned around again to look the Sorceress in the eye, but she still refused to give the other woman the reason that she so desperately craved to hear. This was Alison's way of silently gloating over her position of power over the Sorceress. The vampire even went as far as to give the Sorceress an innocent little smile that she knew that both of them saw right through.

Alison was merely bragging at this point, daring the Sorceress to make the next move, but as clever as Alison was, the Sorceress was infinitely more so. So, instead of saying anything else, the Sorceress only returned Alison's obviously false smile and then she waved a hand. Suddenly, coming up the road and through the dark was a black carriage. As soon as it halted beside Alison and the Sorceress, the Sorceress walked over to the door and held it open graciously, gesturing for Alison to step inside.

Suddenly, roles were reversed and it was the Sorceress who was in control once more. Where it had once been Alison, withholding information from the Sorceress in order to gain the upper hand, now the opposite was occurring. By granting Alison her request without so much as a word, a question, or a demand, the Sorceress was doing the opposite of what Alison expected and leaving her nothing to work with or reply to. It threw the vampire off her guard and she nearly asked what the Sorceress was going to want in return for this favor, but pride and common sense forced her to hold her tongue. It would not be wise to try and engage the Sorceress in another battle of wits when hers had just been shaken up so.

Instead, with as much dignity as she could muster, the vampire princess forced herself to accept the Sorceress' help and she took her place inside the carriage. The Sorceress shut the door behind her, then gave one final instruction to her.

"Just say your destination. It doesn't matter how loud or softly you speak. The driver will hear you," the Sorceress' voice was slightly muffled by the door, but Alison heard her. Still a bit surprised by the Sorceress' strange subservience to her demands, though, it took Alison a second to speak.

Outside the carriage, the Sorceress was grinning ear to ear, knowing full well that she'd just turned the tables on the smug little princess. Although Alison had managed to keep up an impressive, impassive countenance, the Sorceress could still sense what she had done to the vampire and her composure and it made her smile. Then a second later, Alison had found her voice again, and although the Sorceress did not hear the destination Alison requested, the witch was not concerned at all. Instead, she merely waved a hand, but she was not bidding farewell to the carriage. Instead, as she flicked her hand towards the receding coach, a green light escaped from her finger tips and followed after it...

"Safe travels," the Sorceress told the retreating carriage sarcastically, then, in a flash of white, with a hint of green, the carriage was gone.

20 minutes later, Alison found herself standing on JPG's doorstep. Despite all the crazy stuff she'd been through that night, just seeing the workshop again calmed Alison like magic and she had barely taken one step over the threshold before she found herself genuinely smiling again. It was quite the contrast from just 20 minutes ago, when her face had been totally unreadable and impenetrable. But now, as she crept through the darkened shop, she was grinning hopefully. She hoped JPG wouldn't be too hurt by how late she was coming. Usually, Alison told JPG in advance when she would be unable to visit. Tonight had been a bit of a change in schedule, though, so Alison could only hope that JPG would forgive her.

"Ah! Alison! There you are! I was just about to go to bed!" a sleepy voice from the far corner of the workshop called out to the vampire and Alison's smile widened as she turned her eyes over in that direction. Through the dark, Alison could see JPG sitting at her private workbench.

"Sorry JPG. Father called a surprise meeting and I was forced to attend," she said as she moved through the dark to join JPG at her side.

"Figures. Why does the government have to spoil everything?" JPG muttered playfully.

"Good question," Alison replied, then she took a seat beside JPG as JPG relit the candle she'd just extinguished.

"Hey! What's that?" JPG asked suddenly as the candle hissed to life.

"What's what?" Alison echoed in confusion.

"The green thing on your back!" JPG replied and Alison twisted around. Nothing.

"What are you talking about?" Alison gave JPG a concerned look. "Maybe you should go to bed after all..."

"No, no, not yet," JPG replied, sounding just as puzzled as Alison. "I mean, maybe I am seeing things, but it might've just been a stray spark from the match! I could've sworn there was something green glowing on your back and I wanted to ask what it was."

"Well, whatever it is, it isn't there anymore," Alison replied taking one last look over her shoulder. Nope. Still nothing.

"Ah, well, just forget about it," JPG shrugged finally, unbothered by what had just happened. "Just tell me, what was your emergency meeting all about?" and Alison obliged, forgetting about that little green spark just as soon as JPG had.

"By cogs and gears!" JPG muttered as soon as the story was over, in total awe of all that Alison had said. "You met a real live Sorceress? And now you live with her in a magical mansion?"

"Unfortunately," Alison nodded with a grim expression. Unlike JPG, she didn't find the story quite as enchanting.

"Cool! The mansion must be grand! Did she do any magic tricks?!" JPG bounced up and down in her excitement.

"If you call transporting an entire castle to a mansion about 250 miles away in the middle of nowhere all in one night via the use of black carriages and portals, "magic", then yes. She did a magic trick," Alison still didn't like talking about the Sorceress, or any of the events surrounding her, but JPG was far too invested in Alison's story to pick up on this. Instead, she continued to drill the vampire for more information.

"Do you think I could visit your new mansion?" the inventor asked eventually. "It sounds like a cool place!"

"NO!" Alison hadn't meant to shout, but the idea of JPG being in a mansion full of vampires and headed by a psycho witch was not a fun one.

"Then could you maybe at least have the Sorceress visit us?" JPG asked timidly, realizing her mistake in asking such a question to Alison.

"Still a definite no," Alison replied, forcing herself to calm back down.

"Awww! But it might be good for business!" JPG joked. "This place sure could use a financial boost!" she added, a bit more serious as she looked around the dirty, dilapidated workplace she called a home.

"Well, I wouldn't trust a single coin from her," Alison replied darkly. "And any company she brings will only bring trouble as well!"

"Oh, come on, Alison! Now you're just being paranoid!" JPG nudged the vampire teasingly.

"Am not!" Alison replied seriously.

"Am too!" JPG countered cheekily.

"First off, it's 'are too'," Alison said. JPG pouted in reply. "Second off, am not!" JPG snickered in reply.

"Am too..." and suddenly, Alison had forgotten all of her worries as she engaged her human companion in this strange but surprisingly humorous back-and-forth argument. It was not something that required any amount of wit, but Alison still decided to encourage JPG.

"Am not," the vampire said.

But the night could not last forever, and when JPG began to yawn, finally reaching a point where she was physically unable to keep her eyes open, Alison bade her to go to bed.

"But I'm not tired!" JPG yawned on every single word. She didn't want Alison to go just yet.

"But you're going to be tired tomorrow if you don't at least catch a few hours of sleep now," Alison reminded, not even bothering to argue with JPG now about whether or not she was tired, because that would just be another hour-long argument. "Cedric wouldn't be happy if you showed up to work tomorrow, still half asleep!" she added.

"Like I care what Cedric thinks!" JPG snorted, but she obeyed Alison's command anyway and finally went to sleep, smiling fondly at the vampire before heading up the stairs that would take her to her couch-based bed. Alison smiled back at her affectionately and continued to grin until she reached the door of the workshop. The moment she found herself facing the black carriage and its driver, however, that smile was gone, and a firm, commanding expression had taken its place.

"Home," was all she said and the driver nodded. 20 minutes later, Alison was standing in front of the mansion again.

With nothing else to do, and being quite unwilling to socially interact, Alison returned to the mansion's library. This time, however, she didn't go to look at maps. Instead, she pulled a book off the shelf (it was some vampire novella titled "Carmilla") and nestled on a nearby couch and began to read. Had she been paying any attention to her surroundings at all, however, she would've noticed something sliding down her back and between the couch cushions before slipping across the floor and outside the library altogether. It was a little green light, and it slithered through the mansion until it reached the Sorceress, whereupon it vanished right back into her fingertips...

The next night went much the same as before, and so did every night thereafter. While Dorian and his lot seemed fine with staying in the mansion forever, Alison found herself spending as much time as she could back with JPG. What's more, with Dorian and the other vampires permanently at the mansion, Alison was finally able to take JPG to visit her old castle. It wasn't very impressive, the entire castle totally empty, but it finally allowed JPG to get a look inside the place that Alison had called home for so very long. And this time, it was safe.

Slowly, a new routine settled in Alison's life that wasn't too different from the one. Her days were spent sleeping and her nights were spent either attending one of Dorian's parties or relaxing with JPG, either in the workshop or her now-abandoned castle. Really, the only change in Alison's life was that she was living in a mansion instead of a castle. Everything else remained the same.

"So, is the Sorceress ever going to have you guys, like, actually do something... or... what?" JPG asked one night. Upon that night, they had decided to go to Alison's old castle. Although there was nothing left within the stone walls of that castle, Alison still manage to make it feel a little bit welcoming and she had just finished a waltz with JPG in the empty ballroom. JPG was not nearly as graceful or skilled as the vampires of the court, but Alison found her to be a far more enjoyable partner. Now, though, the two were resting, sitting upon a couple of cushions Alison brought over from the mansion, just so JPG wasn't forced to sit on a cold, hard floor whenever she wanted to sit down.

"What do you mean?" Alison asked, the question catching her off guard as she reclined upon her own cushion, pressed up against JPG.

"I mean, you've been with her for several years now and it sounds like you still haven't done much except become her roommates," JPG explained. "Didn't she want you all there to do something for her? Or did that never pan out?" JPG continued to ask. For a moment, Alison could only flounder, but to fill the silence settling between them, Alison forced herself to speak.

"Oh! That! Yeah. Well, ummm, to be honest, I don't really know," the vampire confessed awkwardly. She rubbed the back of her neck, partly embarrassed that she had no answer to JPG's good question, and partly reeling over what the young inventor had just said...

Several years. That was what JPG had said. But could that be true? Had it seriously been "several years"? Had it seriously been several years since Alison first met JPG? Had it seriously been several years since Alison first met the Sorceress? Had it seriously been several years? Perhaps a distorted sense of time was what came with being an ageless vampire, but it usually was never this bad. And sure, Alison had no need to keep track of any dates, but how could entire years have gone by without her notice? And Alison had an especially hard time believing that it had been several years already just because, to her, it had only felt like several months.

But no, she could hear it in JPG's voice that JPG was being totally serious. This was no joke or bluff. JPG seriously thought that it had been several years and even though Alison was having a hard time wrapping her head around such an idea, she didn't disbelieve JPG either. The vampire even racked her brains, trying to remember how many birthdays she'd celebrated with JPG. For some reason, she couldn't remember. For something that should be so easy and obvious, Alison genuinely did not know how many times she'd celebrated JPG's birthday. How old was JPG again? Well, going by JPG's numbers, she would be in her early 20s, like Alison. The two had met when JPG was still in her late-teens, but if the "several years" thing was true, then JPG would be in her early 20s. But had it really been that long? For some reason, it hadn't felt so to Alison.

"Well, if you ask me, she'd better get a move on!" JPG scoffed in amusement, totally unaware of Alison's internal crisis. Alison spent the rest of that night in a somewhat subdued state. For some reason, the idea of her having been at that mansion for years just felt off, and even though she knew time-distortion was common amongst vampires, this was a new level of it and Alison was no longer sure what to think...

"Father?" Alison approached Dorian about her time-based confusion the very next night.

"Alison?" the vampire king was genuinely surprised to see his daughter trying to talk to him instead of running off to who-knew-where. What's more, Dorian could also sense that Alison really only wanted to talk. She wasn't about to complain, demand a favor or start a fight. She just wanted to talk, and this surprised him enough to let her.

"Has the Sorceress told you, or mother, about any future plans?" Alison phrased the question slowly and carefully.

"Future plans?" the king was puzzled.

"Yeah. You remember when we first met her? She said she had some glorious plans for a universal conquest?" Alison asked.

"Ah, yes, I do," Dorian nodded as his memory came back to him.

"Well, has she said anything to you, or mother, about what's going to happen next, or when she'll need us?" Alison continued to press.

"No, I can't say that she has," Dorian answered honestly. "But I'm sure she will in good time. Just give her a chance."

"Father, she made us pledge our loyalty a few years ago and there has been no progress since," Alison said. "When is 'in good time'?"

"A few years?" Dorian echoed, eyebrows raising. "No, Alison, that was only a few months ago."

"...No, father, it was a few years ago," Alison spoke slowly, a strange feeling rising up in her chest again as she said this.

"It couldn't be!" Dorian replied, still looking quite confounded by his child. "Alison, darling, are you feeling alright?"

It was this sincere use of the term "darling" that woke Alison from her mini stupor.

"No, I guess I just feel like I've been living here longer than I have," Alison forced a smile upon her face.

"Hmmmm," Dorian didn't look convinced.

"Anyways. Have you heard anything from the Sorceress?" Alison was anxious to return to the original point she was trying to make.

"No, I haven't, but I'm sure we will in good time and there is no point in trying to press the matter further," Dorian replied. His voice was still calm, but there was a new edge to it that indicated, quite clearly, that he did not wish to converse with Alison any longer. Her wild talks were taking over again and he didn't want to suffer the fallout when they would reach a breaking point. What did it matter that the Sorceress hadn't gotten back to them yet? It was her mansion and her plan, it was her choice! Why was Alison always so... nosy?

"I was just wondering," Alison muttered meekly.

"Well then stop," Dorian advised with a frown and Alison was forced to obey. She snuck away, then, and Dorian watched her go. Although he still thought the "several years" thing was lunacy on her part, he did have to admit that he was surprised the Sorceress hadn't had him do much yet except live in her mansion. Perhaps he would take it up with her later...

For an indefinite chunk of time, nothing of great interest happened. Although she did try a little to figure out what was going on and why the Sorceress had called them all here only to leave them hanging for years on end, nothing ever popped up to aid Alison in her explorations. No one else in the mansion, vampire or human servant, seemed to think that anything was wrong or suspicious and Alison certainly wasn't going to try and ask the Sorceress herself, not that the woman was ever around much. She did make sure to visit at least bi-weekly, but sometimes the witch would be gone for up to weeks at a time, leaving Dorian in total control of the mansion. That, in and of itself, was pretty suspicious, but again, Alison could never find much of anything that would give her a clue as to what was really going on.

After one particularly long evening, wherein Alison had needed to help Dorian settle a dispute within the vampire court that resulted in her needing to subdue Calvin and Vera both (which she did with great ease, and a bit of annoyance), Alison found herself especially looking forward to seeing JPG that night. Alison entered the old workshop eagerly, but all she needed was to take one step inside to know that something was wrong. The workshop was totally empty. She couldn't even hear the telltale heartbeat or breathing of Cedric or JPG. It was unlike them to ever leave the building totally unattended like this. And when Alison looked around, she couldn't find any sort of note or clue as to why the store had been abandoned so suddenly or so completely. What was really off-setting, though, was the fact that every object within the store was still out and exposed. Goods were not locked up, tools and aprons were still lying across tables and benches. Not a single thing had been put away, and that was very, very unlike Cedric and JPG. There was no sign of a struggle, but what else could've caused such a complete and sudden flight from the store?

Alison left the building at once, not even bothering to check the upstairs because she knew that it would be just as empty as the downstairs.

"Finished so soon?" the carriage driver joked darkly when he saw her run from the store barely five minutes after entering it.

"They're not home," Alison replied, so mystified that she didn't bother to give him a rebuke for not minding his own business.

"Well, didn't you know it?" the carriage driver scoffed. "They joined the mansion earlier today!" and Alison went even paler than normal.

"They what?" she asked, voice deadly soft.

"About 12 hours ago!" the driver replied casually. "I drove them up to the mansion myself!"

20 minutes later, Alison was back in the mansion, sprinting through its halls, barely able to contain emotions swarming through her mind. It had taken quite a bit of self-control on her part not to rip the driver limb from limb for what he had said and now it was taking even more for her to not have a total meltdown and start demanding at any living soul she passed where JPG was. Instead, though she did not need to breathe, Alison forced herself to inhale and exhale slowly as she continued to run through the mansion's halls, trying to figure out where the Sorceress might've placed someone like JPG. Alison still couldn't believe she hadn't noticed! Sure, she would've been asleep at the time JPG would've moved in, her being nocturnal and JPG diurnal, but it was unsettling for Alison to think that the Sorceress had found JPG and she hadn't even known.

At last, Alison found herself facing a hidden staircase in the mansion's foyer. It was off to the side and, since Alison spent most of her time away from the mansion anyway, she wasn't surprised that she had never seen it before. Instead, without hesitation, she ran down the staircase and found herself, next, in a long red hallway. Doors lined the hall, but before Alison could even open a single one of them, she heard what sounded like rowdy laughter coming from one of them. Down here? Had some groundskeeper gotten drunk and lost? Was it some of the vampires of the court deciding to have a tryst down here of all places? Or perhaps, was it a gaggle of maids trying to escape their duties? Alison approached the door in caution and confusion, pressing an ear to the wood and closing her eyes to focus in. Barely a second later, her eyes had shot open again. That wasn't just any old rowdy laughter. It was... JPG!

While Alison only pressed her ear further into the door in order to hear JPG better, JPG herself was having a ball.

"Oh, can you believe this place, Cedric?!" she cried in delight, smiling genuinely at her boss for the first time in a very long time. "Isn't it great?!"

"Why, it is more than just great, it is astounding! A mechanical miracle!" Cedric responded, grinning just as hard, and then he suddenly scooped JPG up in his arms, hugging her so hard he lifted her right off her feet.

"Whoa!" JPG yelped, giggling as she felt Cedric spin her around in his embrace. Never had they ever been so happy in all their years working together, but this change in their fortune had been so sudden and strange that it was only fitting that their own relationship follow suit. Just earlier that day, they had been visited by the strangest customer that they had ever met...

It was some weird woman who called herself "the Sorceress". Although JPG recognized her at once, thanks to Alison, she pretended to be just as new to the woman as Cedric was. The Sorceress had come into their dingy little shop, not looking for any machine to buy, but a service. Cedric's service. She'd come to demand Cedric's technical prowess for her own. She insisted that he come to work for her, building all kinds of robot servants for her to help her look after the large estate she owned on the countryside. She promised that there was no better mechanic for this job than Cedric and, if he would accept her offer and come to work for her, she would allow him to stay in the mansion as well.

Along with receiving good, enjoyable work that actually befitted a man of his great skill, he would receive the high honor of getting to stay with her in her luxurious mansion. No longer would he sleep on a shabby mattress above a dusty old store filled with rusty old parts. Instead, he would receive a proper room with a proper bed, right beside a much-upgraded lab. He would live in a mansion instead of a hut. His new lab would have all the technology his previous one lacked, and it would never run out of parts or pieces because, if there was every anything he needed, all he needed to do was ask and it would be granted. He would literally want for nothing, food and housing taken care of by living in the mansion, and then workspace and materials also covered, totally free of charge! He would always have the latest technology and newest, cleanest tools. No more rust or mold, no more squeaky bolts or broken benches and tables. Nothing but the finest would be given to him if he would become her worker.

The deal had been so good, Cedric almost hadn't believed it, but when the woman, the Sorceress, had been able to actually make good on her name and produce out of thin air an example of what kind of high-end technology and new, fancy tools awaited them at their new home, Cedric was won over at once. He promised he'd build her an army of robots and would create security systems for all of England if she would employ him and the deal had been set the moment he signed a piece of paper she also pulled right out of thin air. It was a contract, but Cedric didn't even bother to read it before jotting his name down at the bottom. Afterwards, the Sorceress wished away the contract and led the two right out of their little workshop. There, waiting for them, was a black carriage, its door open and inviting.

Now the two were closing a first day in this new robotics workshop and it had been so much better than the life they left behind that both of them were in ecstasy, almost drunk on their own disbelief and pleasure.

"Ah! I've never cleaned up a lab this fast in my life!" Cedric sighed as he put away the very last of their tools in just under an hour.

"And no cranky customers!" JPG agreed as she finished wiping the last work table clean of its metal shavings and loose wires. While Cedric was just pleased to have a better workspace, JPG was infinitely grateful that they weren't running a store anymore. Sure, it had been fun to meet customers across the land and sell them all the cool toys and trinkets that she and Cedric had made, but sometimes it was hard trying to deal with buyers. They could be rude, they could be deceptive, they could be hard to work with, etc. But now, they only had one customer! The Sorceress!

And as JPG put away her washcloth, she couldn't help but wonder why Alison had been so wary of her! Sure, the Sorceress had been bizarre, her dress as outlandish and excessive and her mannerisms, but she had definitely offered them a good deal! What wasn't there to like? Now all that was left to do was leave. JPG knew Cedric would go to bed at once, but she decided to remain in the lab, planning on trying to find a way to communicate to Alison that she was here now instead of back at their old workshop.

"Ah, goodnight, JPG! Excellent work today!" Cedric declared happily, actually ruffling JPG's short, sandy hair as he made his way out of their new lab. That was how JPG knew Cedric was genuinely pleased with how things were going. It was a rare day when he complimented her, and rarer still when he showed her such an open sign of affection, like ruffling her hair or patting her back. It was a very nice change of pace, JPG decided.

"The same to you, sir," she grinned, the general success of the day rubbing off on her as well as she bade her boss a goodnight.

While JPG remained in the lab, Cedric headed down the red hall to his new bedroom. He almost found himself bouncing along in excitement to see how nice his new sleeping quarters would be. Sure, just about anything would beat the drafty old room he used to sleep in, but given how magnificent and opulent everything else in this mansion was, he could scarcely imagine how divine the bedroom would be. (And oh, to have a bed instead of a dirty old mattress!) And as Cedric walked down the long red hall to his new room, he couldn't help but wonder if he might have actually died and gone to Heaven. Maybe the Sorceress was just some really weird angel of death?

But no. Credible as the idea was at this point, somehow, Cedric knew that this fantasy was only just that. Much as he wanted it to be true that he had finally keeled over of old age and then gone on to Heaven, he knew it could not be so, for if it had, his long-deceased wife would've been here with him, but she was not. Cedric had checked. It had been one of the first things he'd done after moving in here. He'd explored every nook and cranny of the entire estate, inside and out, but his dear old wife was nowhere.

That was what led Cedric to the conclusion that he was still very much alive and on Earth, for if he had been in Heaven, she would've been there too. This thought made him incredibly bitter. Though this place was like paradise, it wasn't quite at that level yet, for paradise would've had Her as well. So, strange as this new reality was to Cedric, he already had come to accept the fact that, somehow, the natural laws of the world allowed it to happen. This was no afterlife he was living in, he was still back on Earth, even if this part of Earth was very foreign to him.

But as Cedric crawled between silk sheets in a clean bed, shutting his eyes, he remembered what the Sorceress had asked him, specifically, to do while he served under her employment. She'd asked him to build a defense system for the mansion. Part of the defense system was to come in the form of robot soldiers. It was then, as Cedric began to drift off into the dreamworld, that he began to wonder if, perhaps, in his free time, after the rest of the defense system was built, he could build a human robot all his own as well. An automaton bride, perhaps? Hmmmm...

Meanwhile, JPG remained in the lab.

"Boy! I sure wish Alison were here to see this!" she muttered to herself as she took another look around her new lab again. She would have to figure out a way to contact Alison soon without revealing herself to the other-

"She is," Alison replied right at that moment, finally revealing herself to the young inventor. When she had first heard Cedric make his way to the lab door, Alison had quickly darted into a nearby closet and hidden inside until Cedric had gone past. Now, certain that he was in bed, Alison had emerged and was finally making her presence known to JPG. She was unafraid to approach her old friend now, giving her an unreadable smile.

"Holy nuts and bolts!" JPG yelped, whipping around in surprise, having not expected to hear anyone greet her like that, let alone Alison.

"Fancy meeting you here, eh?" Alison chuckled lowly as she came further into the lab. Then, once JPG managed to wrap her head around the fact that Alison really was with her, here and now, JPG returned the greeting. She lunged at the vampire and wrapped her up in an incredibly tight hug.

"Oh! Alison! What in the name of sparkplugs are you doing here?!" she demanded cheerfully. "Oh! But it is so good to see you!" she hugged the vampire even tighter and the vampire gave her an awkward pat on the back. Though Alison still was not pleased to see JPG here, she supposed that she could let the young inventor enjoy at least one night here, so she forced all of her other negative thoughts about this occurrence out of her mind and, instead, spent the rest of the night catching up with JPG. JPG was now officially a part of this mansion, for worse or for better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: So we finally have JPG and Cedric here (plus the reference to the automaton bride)! Sorry the chapter was so long! I almost considered splitting it in half, but I did promise the next chapter would be about JPG coming to the mansion, so this is how I'm keeping my promise. Now for a few notes:
> 
> First, if you caught it, I referenced "Carmilla" within this chapter. It's a Victorian era novella that predates Dracula and is about a female vampire and her female human companion. You can read the full version online for free if you just type in "Carmilla PDF" in google. It's also a very entraining, very queer webseries on YouTube. You can watch it all right now and for free if you just type in "Carmilla" in YouTube. I highly recommend fans of useless lesbian vampires and their tiny gay girlfriends to give it a watch! And then to read my Carmilla fanfics once you're done binge-watching it! (Ok, I'm done promoting now, LOL). 
> 
> Second, in regard to the confusing timeline (the "several years" thing), I'll get to that later. It's just me hinting at a theory that's referenced within the webseries itself. 
> 
> Third, the green light from the Sorceress was a tracking spell. She used it on Alison the first night to see where Alison was going, but once she realized that Alison was only going to be visiting a lowly inventor every night, she backed off. The next time she used it was after Dorian asked the Sorceress about why no one in the mansion had really done anything yet (which he did because of Alison's short conversation with him in this chapter). In response, the Sorceress starts keeping tabs on Alison again and, through that, finally realizes that JPG has one of the Crown of Oblivion gems (the Gear Gem).
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter! The plot thickens! (The next few will involve meeting other lieutenants, so get ready for more characters to join the mansion!


	6. Werewolves

Although Alison still wasn't happy that JPG was now living in the mansion as well, there wasn't much she could do about it at that point.

"Just think of it this way," JPG had tried to assuage Alison's concerns. "Since I'm technically an employee of the Sorceress now too, none of your vampire buddies are allowed to eat me! I'm safe from them!"

"But you know that means your life comes at the expense of others, right?" Alison replied angrily, though her anger was not directed at JPG. In this case, it was directed at the Sorceress and Dorian.

It was common knowledge that humans and vampires coexisted in the mansion, but by order of the Sorceress herself, the vampires were forbidden to harm the humans living inside the mansion. Instead, their prey came from the outside. In order to obtain that outside prey, once a month, Dorian and the Sorceress would send out a flurry of letters to every corner of the globe. Those letters invited random strangers to a "magnificent ball" being held at the mansion that night. Using the black carriages, all the guests would arrive for Dorian's party, but none of them would ever leave. It was a very easy, efficient way of feeding an entire court quickly and cleanly (in a sense).

But Alison hated this method of feeding. To her, there was just something so wrong and cruel about inviting innocent and ignorant humans in under the pretense of celebration and hospitality, only to break their trust by turning them into the main course. Of course, Alison understood why Dorian chose to hunt this way and she did have to admit that not only was it more logical, but it wasn't quite as gruesome as them pillaging village sides, it still didn't sit well with Alison to watch as her court would bring all these foolish, naive mortals in for a dance and then keep them for dinner. The screams were nightmarish to behold and Alison couldn't help but be selfishly glad that JPG's screams were never amongst the dying chorus. But her heart still ached for all the humans who did spend their final breaths, screaming in agony and terror.

Alison, herself, would still leave the mansion to hunt. Although she now had no reason to ever leave the mansion just because JPG lived there as well, Alison did still take the occasional trip outside and she continued to do what she used to do for food: prey upon the dead or dying. Because Dorian's guests were always youthful humans in the prime of their life, Alison never drank from any of them. Instead, she still fervently insisted upon drinking only from those who were already gone and unable to feel pain, or those who were close enough to death that killing them would either be considered a mercy, or a minor inconvenience. And by "minor inconvenience", this meant that killing the victim would only cause the loss of a few days off of the overall lifespan. And as always, whenever Alison did have to kill, her blows were always quick, clean and painless. The victims died before they even knew what was happening. It was something the other vampires still disdained Alison for, but she didn't care. To her, being merciful was not a weak or cowardly trait, it was an honorable one worth preserving.

"Oh. Yeah. I forgot about that..." JPG had the grace to look ashamed of her remark. She, like Alison, found it horrible to think about what the vampires did to all these innocent people on a monthly basis, but, because Alison made sure to shield her from those dark and dreadful nights, JPG had never heard the screams or seen the blood the way Alison had. Alison had always protected JPG from ever having to see any of that pain and suffering up close and that created something of an emotional wall between JPG and the victims. But that didn't mean JPG didn't feel any sort of guilt or grief over their deaths. On the contrary, her heart broke every time she imagined how many innocent lives were ripped away every month. She just wasn't foolish enough to think it would ever change.

Like Alison, JPG knew the vampires needed to eat. The only way to get them to stop harming humans was to either get them to forsake eating altogether and die, which would never happen, or convince them to try Alison's diet of only eating the dead or dying. That was just as unlikely as the former choice because most of the vampires took great pride in drinking the blood of humans in the prime of their life. To the vampires, it was more fun to brag about cutting down a man in his prime than it was to brag about ending someone already at death's door.

These reasons were why Alison, herself, had never tried to stop these monthly slaughters. Badly as she wanted to, she knew it would never fly. If she tried to stop all the murders, she'd be stopping the vampires' main source of food and energy. No one would ever allow her to do that. So both JPG and Alison, though wanting desperately for the deaths to stop, were powerless to do anything but mourn and pity.

The closest thing that this hunting method had to a plus was the fact that it only happened once a month. Before life at the mansion, hunting was a nightly activity because vampires needed to drink every couple of days. After life at the mansion, however, the Sorceress had forced Dorian to become more careful with his food supply. She wasn't going to afford him new victims every single night. Instead, the hunts now only took place once a month and, even though pretty much every victim died on the night of the party, not ever victim's blood was drained. Instead, blood was conserved to last throughout the month until the next hunt.

That was the only thing Alison liked about the new system, the forced rationing of blood so that not a single drop was wasted. But even though that meant, in the long run, more lives were spared, it still resulted in mass-carnage once a month and, every so often, Dorian would keep a few victims alive after the party. He would imprison them, feeding on them periodically across the rest of the month as his Warm Ones until the person either finally died, or Alison herself gave them a mercy kill. Even though Dorian's tactic of keeping Warm Ones did help increase the supply of blood for the next month, it was such an inhumane way of going about eating that Alison never regretted mercy-killing any Warm One she found, although this often infuriated Dorian beyond words. But what did Alison care for him? He could rot in a grave for all she cared.

Once again, Alison was infinitely grateful that, as an employee of the Sorceress, JPG was protected from such a cruel fate. But that didn't mean she wasn't in danger. Alison still didn't trust the Sorceress, herself, and she certainly didn't trust the other vampires not to harm JPG. Even though JPG was protected by the Sorceress' law, if the vampires got hungry enough, they still wouldn't hesitate to kill JPG, and no amount of the Sorceress' magic could bring back the dead. And even if the Sorceress did kill the guilty vampires to avenge JPG's death, JPG would still be dead either way. So it was better for an accidental run-in with a vampire to not happen at all.

Alison did sometimes consider turning the girl into a vampire as well, just to protect her, but that would, of course, mean that Alison would be creating another human-eater. Even though Alison's own methods were very humane, it still resulted in human death. Alison didn't want to bring another one of her kind into existence, so it was better to keep JPG as a human, even though that did have dangers attached to it...

But it was funny, Alison spent so much of her time worrying about JPG being in danger that she never worried about herself being in danger. Vampire or not, even Alison was not free from the pains of death. She was only given superhuman abilities, not total immortality. Sure, the amount of things that could kill her were far fewer than what could kill the average human, but she still had her weaknesses...

One particular night, JPG decided to go to bed instead of hang out with Alison. This was not due to any disinterest or anger with Alison, rather, JPG had just spent an especially difficult day in the lab trying to construct a more physical part of the mansion's upcoming security system and the young inventor just didn't have the energy to spend the night with Alison. Alison understood, but it saddened her, a little, that she and JPG weren't going to spend a lot of time together that night. The moment JPG had snuggled up underneath her bed sheets, though, Alison chose to do some exploring. Although she'd lived in the mansion for years, because she hadn't spent much time inside of it, it was all still somewhat new to her. And that went double for the grounds. Alison only knew what she had glimpsed from Dorian's throne room or the front door when she would leave to visit JPG. It was time, Alison decided, to give the grounds a proper look...

In a word, the grounds were large. Immediately surrounding the mansion in all directions was a massive sea of emerald grass, clean, fresh and crisp. Beyond that were a variety of gardens. Some were big and sprawling, full of all kinds of flowers and plants. Others were small, only there to decorate the small paths that crisscrossed the massive territory or to fill in empty spaces around other outdoor decorations like fountains, pools and gazebos. There were also a great deal of buildings in the estate as well. There was a large greenhouse, several sheds and a handful of what looked like the houses that the groundskeepers lived in. (Only a handful of humans lived in the mansion since most of the mansion was reserved for the vampires. Humans typically lived in moderately sized and endowed houses scattered across the property).

Then, beyond even that, was a forest. Vast, endless and almost wall-like, surrounding the mansion on all sides, was a ring of trees that stretched out in every direction for miles. Of course, there were plenty of trees scattered around the rest of the grounds, but those little forests inside the borders were nowhere near as big or endless as the one that, in a ring-shape, surrounded the whole estate like some kind of border wall. Curious, Alison decided to explore that boundary, following one single path towards the edge of the property. She never reached that final border, however, because something cut her off about halfway in. A howl.

"Werewolves!" all at once, the vampire's pupils dilated. Alison was not afraid of werewolves, per se, but she knew of their brutal reputation, especially while in wolf form, so she began to run back towards the mansion with the hopes of escaping without notice.

As Alison ran back, she couldn't help but wonder where the werewolves had come from. She hadn't realized that there were any living on the estate. She had never seen them before! But, she supposed, that wasn't too surprising. After all, even though she'd lived her for years, she'd spent so little time actually getting to know the place that it was entirely possible that she had just never been around during a full moon. She could've easily missed the local werewolves if she was never around the mansion during a full moon. Or maybe the werewolves always remained on the outskirts of the territory. That could also explain why Alison had never seen them before. But whether the reason was where the werewolves decided to live or if it was Alison's own lack of time spent at the mansion, it didn't really matter right then. Alison's first priority was a quick and quiet escape, so she pushed those questions from her mind and kept going. She could ask about the werewolves later.

Unfortunately, Alison's hopes were dashed. Although Alison's stealth and speed were definitely impressive, the werewolves managed to catch her scent and they did not hesitate to sprint after her. Since there were multiple of them, they were easily able to surround her and cut off her escape route back to the mansion. Alison came to a halt as two large werewolves suddenly appeared from the shadows in front of her.

"And just what are you doing out here so late?!" the first of them growled. He had an orange pelt.

"Don't you know this is our territory? All trespassers will be devoured!" the second agreed. He had a black pelt. They, snapping and snarling, began to close in on Alison but, instead of running, or even trying to fight, Alison only straightened her back, looked them dead in the eye, and spoke to them in the calmest, softest, most serious and formal voice they'd ever heard.

"My name is Alison," she said. "And I am the princess of the vampires. My father is Dorian, king of the vampires, and we were invited to live on this estate by its owner, the Sorceress, therefore, I have every right and reason to be out here late at night and this is far more my territory than it is yours. I have lived here for several years, after all. If you really believe that trespassers deserve to be devoured, it is you who will bleed out upon my fangs tonight!" she promised, but instead of getting scared or angry or put off by her calm demeanor, the two wolves only laughed.

"Ha! Princess vampire? Oooh, I quiver with fear!" the orange wolf chortled, huffing and wheezing as he laughed.

"And boy, little princess, do we got news for you!" his black-furred companion agreed. "We were here first! The Sorceress invited us in as well, and we and several others have been here long before you and the rest of your snobby little court have, little missy! We saw you the night you came to the mansion! You're no more than a new little toy for her! You aren't special!"

"So let's have a little talk about who this land really belongs to, eh?" the orange wolf finished for the black wolf, then both of them lunged. They opened their jaws wide, revealing a score of sharp yellow teeth that framed a big, slimy black tongue. It was a terrifying sight, but Alison was still unafraid. Instead, she only side-stepped out of the way, and both of the wolves easily missed her.

She scoffed a little at them and tilted her head as they landed a few feet away.

"Is that all you werewolves can do?" she demanded. "I've seen better goblin and gremlin attacks!" the werewolves snarled indignantly at this remark, but Alison continued on. "Perhaps you were invited to live here first," she allowed. "But did you ever think that maybe the reason the Sorceress brought in new people was because she wanted creatures who were halfway competent?! Maybe she brought us in because you weren't enough!" the vampire laughed tauntingly while the werewolves, enraged by the insult, clawed at the ground and prepped for another lunge.

Alison knew that they would not be so rash as before, so she knew her side-step attack would no longer work. She continued to remain motionless, though, waiting for them to jump. She wanted them to make the first attack again, but the moment they did, she took a few steps forward, thereby forcing them to over-jump her. But that wasn't where her attack ended. Instead, shaping her hands into a claw, nails pointed upward, she raised her arms so that the wolves dragged their exposed underbellies on her nails as they jumped right over her head.

Although Alison's nails weren't even sharp enough to scar them, the wolves still yelped in pain just because they had not expected such a tactic. By now, they were really mad, but the angrier they got, the calmer and more amused Alison became. Being a vampire who spent most of her days working amongst a royal court of other mystical and magical creatures, Alison had quite a bit of experience in dealing with werewolves and unruly subjects. After all, hadn't she needed to subdue Vera and Calvin both just a few nights ago? This was hardly any different. And she had battled werewolves before, it just hadn't been recent, but she hadn't forgotten how to do it.

Now, Alison had to admit that, contrary to the stereotypes, not every werewolf was a mindless savage. Even in wolf form, they could be quite intelligent, gentle, reasonable, compassionate and controlled. Alison had dealt with these types of werewolves before, so it would be wrong of her to claim every werewolf lacked self-control and self-awareness. Additionally, the old myth about vampires and werewolves being enemies was only that. Dorian actually had quite a few werewolf friends, they just spent most of their time in human form. The wolf side only came out once a moon cycle after all, so the odds of a werewolf, in werewolf form, being present at one of Dorian's parties was rare, unless Dorian chose to have the party on a full moon. But even then, the werewolf would have to choose to come.

So Alison wasn't going to claim that all werewolves were brutish and bad. It was just these two goons. But their rage was blinding them so much that they had no sense of tact or strategy while trying to attack Alison. That was what made this bout so fun for her! While battling more competent werewolves could be a challenge because they managed to retain their intelligence along with the added strength that came from being a wolf, werewolves like these were nothing but a sack of muscle. No challenge at all.

This time, the wolves tried attacking one at a time. The black wolf lunged first, but since Alison had predicted that they would try to make such move, she only drew back a fist and punched as hard as she could. It didn't leave a lasting mark anymore than her fingernails did, but the surprise and blunt force of the blow made the black wolf yelp in shock and pain. Then, when the orange wolf came to take his turn, Alison side-stepped again, having predicted, correctly, that the orange wolf would try to make Alison's forced distraction from the black wolf into something he could use to his own advantage. Suffice to say, it didn't work.

"Come on, guys! This is all elementary stuff! Neither of you have yet to actually use any real, good strategy! And by the way, as a vampire who knows all about fighting and military work, may I suggest that you fix your postures while you're at it! You look absolutely horrible! Perhaps you think that bending over will give you more momentum, and it does, but that is also exactly why you guys are so out of control and have such a hard time out-maneuvering me!" Alison lectured her attackers, taunting them mercilessly. With every word she spoke, they only got angrier and angrier, but that was exactly what Alison wanted. "I've fought your kind before, back in my court, and let me just say that my father would never ally with the likes of you! He only prefers competent werewolves! The ones who actually know how to hold their own in a fight and don't just go bumbling around like idiots, hoping for a lucky hit!"

At last, however, even the vampire grew tired of this little cat-and-mouse game of insults. She suddenly turned and bolted, not with the intent of fleeing, but with the intent of getting the wolves to follow her to a place where she could easily finish them off. Just as she predicted, though, the wolves took her sudden choice to turn and run as a sign that she was trying to escape again, so they went barreling after her. Alison fought the urge to laugh as she picked up her pace, outrunning the panting beasts that nipped at her heels. They were fast, but she was agile. She was able to dodge their every attack, even while running away from them.

Alison finally led them back to a large fountain she'd passed earlier on her way into the forest. With ease, she leapt onto the fountain, balancing gracefully on the rounded top of it. The werewolves, not far behind, came to a halt.

"Ha! And just what do you think you're going to do from up there?!" the black wolf snarled.

"You've only doomed yourself further!" the orange wolf agreed. Then, as if to prove his point, he jumped. He was able to reach Alison with ease but, the second before he could even make an attempt to bite her, she'd jumped back off the fountain and onto the ground below. The wolf, being far too large to balance on the fountain top the same way Alison had, quickly came crashing down into the fountain's water below. The blow still didn't do much to scar him, but it did twist his ankle such that he could no longer run and, with the water quickly dampening his fur, it suddenly became a lot harder for him to see and move swiftly. He could only flounder in the fountain. Alison had effectively defeated one of her opponents. She fought the urge to laugh in triumph again before turning her attention to the black wolf, who still was totally dry.

"Well then?" she opened her arms challengingly. For a moment, the wolf paused, some semblance of sanity returning to him. This vampire was clearly more of a fighter and a thinker than either he or his brother had assumed. He didn't want to act too quickly, lest he make another foolish mistake like his brother and end up falling for another one of the vampire's wily tricks. In the back of his furry head, he couldn't help but wonder if the vampire hadn't been at least a little correct when she spoke of the Sorceress bringing in new members because the werewolves, themselves, weren't that much good. But in his defense, these transformations only happened once every lunar cycle! It wasn't his fault they weren't more often! Besides, the Sorceress had only brought over him and his brother. What good did she expect from what wasn't even a full pack?

If there was anyone to blame for his and his brother's failures, it was the Sorceress herself! But she had still promised that she had wanted them here, on her estate, to act as its guardians, so clearly she wasn't done with them yet, right? They'd made a deal! Signed a contract! In exchange for their service on the grounds, the Sorceress was going to bestow upon them nice homes where they would be taken care of if they, in return, took care of the land. Surely the Sorceress wasn't going to go back on her word about that, right? She promised that she wanted them, that they were worthy of her honor! She couldn't turn on them now! No, this vampire girl was just bluffing! He was sure of it!

The black wolf finally shook his head, trying to clear away the thoughts of self-doubt. He tried to chide himself, reminding himself that the Sorceress would never break a contract, especially not if it was one she wrote. This vampire princess, Alli-whatever, was just trying to distract him, to weaken him, but no more! Her cheap tactics were not going to work on him as easily as she thought! These grounds belonged to the werewolves! Not to this prissy little princess who thought she was just so much better than everyone else! He was a guardian of these grounds and, tonight, there was a serious threat that had to be eliminated. He would see to it that it happened!

Finally clearing his head, the black wolf growled a little at the vampire princess, but he still didn't make a single step forward, trying to think of a way to defeat her before he made any real decision. Alison's only reply was to shrug. She allowed him to think for a few seconds more before suddenly uttering a howl all her own. Alison tilted her head back and opened her mouth, a long "Awwwwoooooooooooooo" rising up from her throat. It was very pathetic, by werewolf standards, and she didn't sound at all like a wolf, but the sound alone activated something deep within the werewolf brothers and they, without even meaning to, began to howl back.

"Awwwwoooooo!" Alison cried.

"Awwwwoooooo!" the brothers howled back. Then, incited by each other's howls, the black and orange wolves began to go back and forth amongst themselves while Alison only watched, carefully sinking to her knees to pick up a loose stone off the ground. While the two werewolves continued to howl at one another, Alison took careful aim, then she hurled the stone right into the mouth of the black wolf.

"Awwwoooo-ccckkkkk!" he cut off mid howl, choking. The stone quickly shot back out of his maw. He was unharmed, but very, very, very angry.

"Well then?" Alison opened her arms again, but this time, she added in one little question that finally got the wolf to charge. "Or are you scared?"

The continued howls of the orange wolf, mingled with Alison's taunts, made the black wolf lose his brief flash of common sense and, without another thought, he jumped right at Alison, forgetting that she was standing right in front of the fountain. She was able to pretty much use the same trick twice. The black wolf plowed right into the fountain, not only being totally submerged in the chilly water, but slamming so hard into the stone pillar at the center of the fountain that he managed to obtain quite the nasty bump on his head. Furthermore, although he did not crash directly into his brother, the splash he made was large enough to douse the orange wolf all over again.

Alison watched the two brothers splash each other in a pathetic attempt to find their way out of the fountain for about five seconds before she finally grew tired of the idiotic display. Without even batting an eye, she approached the fountain and bent over to look down at the floundering and soaking hounds. Her hands shot out to grab the backs of their necks and she, with terrifying ease, lifted them both right out of the fountain, raising them over her head. She allowed them to dangle there for a moment, a silent intimidation tactic meant to remind them just how strong she really was. Then, once she was finished showing off, she slammed them back down onto the ground as hard as she could, their backs colliding loudly with the pavement surrounding the fountain. She leered down at them, fangs bared to their fullest. She looked utterly terrifying.

"Now then, now that that's over with, let us make one thing very clear," she told them, voice barely able to contain its anger as she loomed over them. "I am Alison, princess of the vampires, and I will not tolerate any disrespect against myself, my father or my court, and to harm me is to harm them and to harm them is to face our wrath! I shall spare you tonight, but know that any further offense against myself will result in your undoing! Go now, little wolf cubs, and run back home to your den to lick your wounds! I pray the sun will show you mercy tomorrow and that when you return to your human form, you will think about the consequences of your actions tonight and you won't be quite so rash as to make those same mistakes again. Am I clear?" never had Alison been quite so angry or threatening as she was in this moment, dealing with her would-be killers. They shook in fear and humiliation, but said nothing. Part of it was from wounded pride and part was because they were honestly too afraid to say anything back. They feared that even the smallest misspoken word would lead Alison to rip their throats clean out. Her fangs were certainly ready for the occasion. They just didn't want her mind to follow suit.

Alison leaned down over the wolves even further, eyes deadly slits and fangs bared. Although she understood why they weren't speaking, to allow them to remain silent would be to allow them to have some level of power in this conversation. That was not going to happen. As of right now, Alison was the one in control. And she was going to be the only one to have any say in how the conversation went. Those two werewolves were going to answer her whether they liked it or not, and if she decided to change her mind and kill them anyway? Well, too bad! She was the dominant one in this conversation. She was the alpha now. And they were going to respect and acknowledge that fact!

"Am. I. CLEAR?" she snarled, a hiss and a roar both in that last word. She was going to force a reply out of them as a show of her own power, not because she actually needed, or even wanted, to hear them speak again.

It was one of the only times in her life that she'd raised her voice, let alone like that, but, for once, she wasn't even trying to hide her anger. Perhaps the werewolves and vampires were not natural enemies and perhaps not all werewolves were this brutish, but that didn't mean Alison wasn't afraid to do serious harm to a wolf's body and mind if push came to shove or any of them ever raised a fang against her own. She would not tolerate disrespect or insubordination, especially not if she had done all she could to avoid a confrontation only to be goaded into one anyway. The way she saw it, she would never start a fight, but she would always end one. She would get all the respect and honor she deserved no matter how scary she had to be. She was still the vampire princess, after all, and if necessary, she wouldn't hesitate to remind the world of this fact.

Besides, the two werewolves had wanted to kill her! That was not something she could just forgive or forget. Instead, she was going to punish them for their attempted murder and remind them that to try and do so again would end in death, but not the one they intended. She had to address such a heinous crime properly, or else it may give them the idea that she would let them go easily. Assassination was no petty crime and Alison was going to treat it accordingly. And this was why she had been so mad. Even though she'd often had to deal with unruly members of her court in a similar manner, the reason this night was one to top all the others was because, at least in the vampire court, none of the vampires had ever been stupid enough to try and kill her. These werewolves were the first creatures to actively try and end Alison's life in a long time and that crime was not going to go unnoticed, unchecked or unpunished.

"Yes, your highness!" the wolves yelped, finally properly frightened into answering the angry young royal standing over them. Much as it wounded their pride to say it, the vampire princess was one scary girl. She had bested them in physical and metal battle both, coming up with witty remarks before tricking them into bringing about their own defeat only to them remind them how easily she could kill them by lifting them both out of a fountain at the same time without even breaking a sweat. If the rest of the vampire court was even half as ferocious as this Alison girl was, the werewolves vowed they would never go within 1000 feet of the place ever again. She could so easily rip out their throats, or claw their bellies wide open, but instead, she was offering to let them go.

"Now go. Get out," Alison muttered darkly, finally backing off. "Get off of my land and out of my face."

"Yes, your highness," the werewolves repeated, stumbling awkwardly to their feet before darting ungracefully back into the shadows, leaving wet pawprints behind as they scrambled away. Alison watched them go in dark satisfaction. She hadn't been lying when she said she'd never lost a battle before, nor had she been lying when she said that she, pacifist as she was, didn't mind getting her fangs dirty sometimes. So while the brothers slunk away, defeated and disheartened, Alison only gave one last proud toss of her head before turning back to the mansion in triumph.

The rest of the night passed peacefully. Alison remained closer to the mansion from that point on and contented herself with exploring the nearby gardens and little forests scattered throughout the closer vicinity. As the triumph of the night began to fade away from Alison's mind, though, she suddenly remembered something that one of the werewolves had barked at her before their began their little battle.

"We were here first!" the wolf had cried. "The Sorceress invited us in as well, and we and several others have been here long before you have!" and Alison couldn't help but wonder, now, just who these "several others" were. And just how far back did "long before you have" actually go? Without even meaning to, the werewolves had reignited Alison's curiosity regarding this mansion and its mad owner and the vampire princess couldn't help but feel like she was looking at a design far bigger than she could ever hope to imagine...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I admit that this chapter is only here for some more "Alison is Awesome" moments and for some "Alison vs Werewolves" theories. 
> 
> First off, though I don't know the exact rules for vampires in EtN, I'm at least assuming that Alison has superhuman strength and speed just because that seems to be universal across all vampires in all works. But even if that's not true, because I don't think we ever see Alison display any superhuman strength or speed in the series, we at least know that Alison is a fighter. But for some reason, when she battles the werewolves, it seems more like a hissing-growling match as opposed to a real fight. I think I know why...
> 
> We know the Crown of Oblivion gems require one life per gem for the gem to work. It's my theory that, because Alison knew that, she knew she'd have to die in order for the werewolf gem to work. That was why she let herself be killed without putting up much of a real battle. She knew she had to die for the gem to work. She didn't lose to the werewolves because they were better than her. She lost because she let them. (TBH, I only made this theory because it's me stubbornly refusing to believe that my brave warrior Alison wasn't strong enough to take on those werewolves, so take my theory with a grain of salt). 
> 
> Also, in regard to the werewolves themselves, there's a bit of an inconsistency in the webseries, so I improvised a bit. 
> 
> First off, the start of Ep 8 implies that there were at least two werewolves because Atticus said he was attacked by werewolves (plural). And the way he and his son move during the intro scene makes it look like more than one wolf is after them.
> 
> Then later, when the group splits up into Joey/Tyler and Andrea/Alex, both of them are attacked by wolves at the same time, further cementing the idea of two wolves. The one that goes after Joey/Tyler looks orange while the one that goes after Andrea/Alex looks black. 
> 
> By that logic, when Atticus turns at the end of the episode, there should be three wolves, but there aren't. I know this is probably due to a limit in the extras they had on set but, technically, there should be three wolves. The original two, then Atticus (who looked brown).
> 
> By the way, neither of these wolves in this chapter is Atticus because his condition is implied to be new because of what his son tells Joey and friends. For that, the two wolves in this chapter are the original lieutenants we see for most of Ep 8 before Atticus turns. In my story, Atticus doesn't become a werewolf until much later. That's why he's not in this chapter. I still think he's part of the mansion, but only as a human groundskeeper. He hasn't been bitten yet...
> 
> Also, this is just me complaining about EtN werewolves, but tell me why "hiding" is a valid option for anyone. The YouTubers go up against WOLVES and they're like "if they can't see us, we won't get taken!" Like, aren't wolves supposed to have a good sense of SMELL? So why does merely hiding work?! Forget being out of sight! Try to be out of smell! (Sorry, just me whining about a minor inaccuracy in the webseries about Victorian-era witches, magic and vampires).


	7. My Army Will Rise

But after that one little midnight meetup with the werewolves, Alison never really interacted with them again. She did see them from time to time, but it was only ever in passing and they were always in human form, now making especially sure to be far away from her neck of the woods whenever a full moon rolled in. Then, in the rare events that they did meet face to face, the werewolves would always intentionally avoid speaking to her. Whether it was from fear or anger, Alison didn't know. All she knew was that whenever she saw them, they were always mysteriously busy looking at something in the opposite direction. For that, Alison never actually got to see what their human faces looked like, or what their human voices sounded like. She didn't really mind that much, though, because, to be fair, she never had much to say to them either.

Or at least, that was what she told herself. Even though life carried on the same as always, Alison still couldn't forget about what the brothers had said about other chosen people, beyond regular servants, living in the mansion. The vampire actually desperately wanted to talk to the werewolves about this matter, but she could tell from the way that they always avoided her that even reaching out to them to ask the question was going to be hard. Besides, even if she did manage to get them to stay around her long enough to chat, there was still no guarantee that she would get an answer out of them, let alone one that was honest and clear. But despite her low odds of success, Alison's curiosity finally got the best of her.

Alison made sure to tell JPG that she was going to be busy with Dorian tonight and vice versa because she did not want to arouse any suspicion, nor did she want another fight. Instead, once again, she went alone through the mansion's estate, headed to where the groundskeepers lived with nothing but herself and the dress on her back. To her, that would be a clear sign of only wanting a conversation, and not wanting to start another fight. And it was not a full moon tonight, so Alison knew the werewolves would be in their human form. For that, she hoped that maybe she could talk some sense in to them and clarify upon just what they had meant when they had told her that she was not the first person to live here. She knew it was foolishness to try and pursue answers from them, especially after how she'd treated them last time they met, but she still wanted to try.

Besides, Alison wasn't just going to visit the werewolves to get answers. She did also feel obligated to apologize for their first interaction. Though they had been very rude to her, even going so far as to try and kill her, she still didn't have to be so aggressive with them either. She'd just lost her head in the heat of the fight! So not only was she going to the wolves again to ask questions, she was also going to try and make peace with them and apologize for her own violent actions. Alison still had a very good heart, and she disliked leaving issues unresolved, especially when there was a chance for peace. She had yet to try and talk to these werewolves on their terms, so she had yet to know whether or not peace was possible.

Sadly, Alison would never get to find out if reconciliation was possible or not because, halfway through her walk over to their part of the estate, someone else cut her off. It all started when she felt a gun being dug into the back of her head. In tandem, a voice, with a very strong accent, gave her a rather simple, but chilling, ultimatum.

"Come quietly, or I blow your brains out!" and Alison decided to comply. Though she was a vampire and, thusly, really hard to kill, Alison still wasn't immortal and she didn't want to take her chances with a gun that was pressed directly into the back of her skull. Besides, even if she did somehow survive such a direct hit, it would probably hurt a lot, so Alison decided not to resist this time. Instead, she took her unseen attacker at his word and allowed him to lead her in another direction, silently cursing her miserable luck all the while.

"Now I don't know you who are, little missy, nor do I care to find out," the man growled as he continued to lead Alison on, gun still digging into the back of her head. "But the Dark Army will never prevail over my glorious Confederate soldiers! Arlyn is a fool if he thinks sending one little spy, such as yourself, is going to do him any good. Tonight's victory is mine! My army will rise, triumphant and supreme!"

"Army?" Alison echoed as they continued to walk through the dark forest.

"Quiet, you!" the man jabbed his gun into Alison's head again and she felt her temper flare. This man had a lot of nerve to be manhandling her so! Alison wasn't scared of this man, she just wasn't stupid enough to think she could outrun a bullet, but that didn't mean she wasn't seriously offended and outraged by this man's coarse treatment of her.

"And don't play dumb with me either!" he continued angrily. "You cannot hide the truth!"

"What truth?" Alison snorted.

"I said QUIET!" the man repeated, yelling at Alison again. Alison managed to swallow down the venom rising up in her throat.

"How can you expect me to be open and honest with you if you silence me every time I open my mouth?" she demanded, fighting hard to keep her voice calm, quiet and level. "Besides," she continued. "You're being far louder than I am, and I am sure that if you aren't careful, this Dark Army, or whatever, will catch you..." this second remark from Alison was a total bluff on her part, she had no idea what the Dark Army even was, but she hoped that it would at least get this brutish Confederate soldier, or whatever he had called himself, to stop pushing her around.

No sooner had the vampire said this, though, when a small band of figures, all clad in black cloaks and wearing black makeup on their faces, appeared. They jumped straight out of the shadows, all wielding weapons that glowed a brilliant and almost sickly green.

"Ah ha! Cash! How very like you it is to be harassing innocent women!" the man leading the charge pointed an accusatory finger at the man who still had his gun digging into the back of Alison's head. She managed to turn her head enough to catch an eyeful of the man who had spoken in her defense. He looked Asian, but Alison couldn't be totally sure. For one, it was dark. For two, the man had black paint smeared across most his face. For three, it wasn't easy for Alison to see because her captor, Cash, was still keeping her firmly in place with his gun. But that was about to change.

"Arlyn!" Cash whipped around the moment he heard Arlyn speak. In that same movement, he removed his gun from the back of Alison's head to point it at Arlyn. This gave Alison the freedom to turn around properly and get a real look at this mysterious Dark Army. One look was all she needed to understand why Cash had mistaken her for one of them. Although she lacked any of those glowing green weapons and she didn't have any black paint on her face, her trademark black dress could've been mistaken for the black cloaks the soldiers of the Dark Army wore.

"And just what do you think you are going to do with that?" Arlyn sneered at Cash and the gun in his hand.

"Only this," Cash replied, then he pulled the trigger. Arlyn went down in a second and Alison reared back, getting ready for what was sure to be a vicious battle, but nothing happened. Instead, Arlyn's body began to convulse and he sat back up.

"Really? That's all you got?" he demanded and Alison could only stare in awe as Arlyn rose to his feet again, the bullet hole in his chest sealing up right before her very eyes. In a matter of seconds, it was like Cash had never shot at all.

"Foolish Confederate scum! Do you really think you can defeat the Dark Army? This is our land!" Arlyn declared, puffing out his chest as though to brag to Cash about how ineffective his bullet had been. Alison could only stare with a mix of wariness, interest, awe and respect as Arlyn continued to taunt Cash. What sort of magic was this that a man could recover from a bullet wound in mere seconds?

"Weak, cowardly Dark Army!" Cash replied, lowering his gun but not loosening his grip on it. "Maybe this used to be your land, but no longer!"

"It was given to us by the owner herself!" Arlyn argued. "My army will rise to the occasion and prove it! This land rightfully belongs to us!"

"And us as well!" Cash bellowed over him. "The Sorceress favors us now! You and the rest of your Dark Army are all washed up, old news, dead in the water, and as soon as my men regain their strength, we will send you back to the dark depths that you belong in!" he snarled.

"The Sorceress?" Alison cried suddenly, turning to look Cash in the eye. Was this one of the other inhabitants the werewolves mentioned?

"Oh, you've heard of her, haven't you, sweetheart?" for just a second, a smile flickered across Cash's face, but it was disgusting and cruel. The way he bared his teeth and raised his lips signified his sense of self-superiority and Alison suddenly felt as though she were looking at Calvin, if Calvin had had brown hair, a beard and a gray soldier's uniform.

"She invited me to live in the mansion with her. My father runs the estate," Alison answered evenly, regaining her composure.

"Oh, does he now?" Cash seemed amused. "Well, little darling, I don't mess with none of that. I'll let y'all stuffy snobs do the paperwork around here. My men and I? We live off the land. Strong and brave and free! Unlike you stuffed-shirts back home, safe in your little beds, my men and I live in the wild outdoors, braving every danger we come across and conquering anything that crosses our path!" Cash's chest became more and more puffed the longer he bragged about himself. "We are a mighty and brave people! Y'all and the cowardly Dark Army ain't nothing but worms to crush under foot! Why do you think the Sorceress chose such a noble soldier like me to join her at this here estate?" he demanded.

Alison didn't reply. Instead, she only continued to study this rude and ruddy man who seemed to think so highly of himself. Alison noticed an array of medals and badges gleaming across the entire upper half of his uniform. Some of the medals were gold and some were silver. Some were big and some were small. Some had fancy ribbons of every color and some were only pinned onto his uniform. And they came in an array of shapes too. Some were round, some were square and some were star-shaped, but each and every one of them was engraved with some sort of honorary message, title or symbol. Clearly, this was a man of great skill and even greater ego.

The only thing Cash wore that did not appear to be an award of any type was a rather large diamond that was pinned on his lapel right over his heart. Despite herself, Alison smirked. For all of Cash's talk about toughness and rawness and all of his alleged disdain with the rich, snobby, lazy upper class, he, himself, was clearly not above such things. That diamond was proof! Clearly, he liked flattering himself with jewelry and gems as well, despite acting like such luxuries were vanities that only the rich and airheaded indulged in. What a hypocrite! (Though what Alison didn't know was that the diamond actually was an award in some sense. It was a spoil of war Cash had taken off the corpse of the Union general he killed, though if anything, that was even more disrespectful than if it had been a mere pretty piece he'd picked up to make himself look better).

As if reading Alison's mind, Arlyn, the commander of the Dark Army, finally spoke up again.

"What do you know of living off the land? You cowardly and lying fool!" he spat. "It is my men who have scourged and scournged across the face of the earth, laying waste to all those who dared oppose. What have you done except fought a few little battles and arrived here because the Sorceress brought you? You did nothing to earn this position here!" and Arlyn's soldiers all began to boo and hiss at Cash, but Cash had a reply.

"She may have hired you first, but she only did so because she needed an army. But me? She came to me personally! She commended my strength and skill on the battlefield! She wanted me! I bet she only ever hired you because you were the first halfway decent army she could find. Well guess what, punk? She's finally found a better one!" Cash gave Arlyn a cruel and toothy grin, spitting on his foot before continuing his spiel. "The Sorceress came to me personally. What are you but hired mercenaries, there only to fill the gaps until the real army could arrive? After all, you aren't the ones who are considered guests of honor on her estate, are you?"

For the next few minutes, Cash and Arlyn continued to trade insults and bragging remarks about their own achievements in combat, trying to decide who the Sorceress liked better. Alison remained silent, however, paying attention not to the bickering soldiers, but to what Cash had just said... So, just like Alison, JPG and the werewolves, he had been invited here by the Sorceress herself, after displaying a very impressive skillset. And this particular skill set was, in Cash's case, great skill in combat. And from what Alison could garner out of Cash's bragging speech, he was a soldier from the south half of North America. Alison couldn't help but be privately amazed by this. So, the Sorceress wasn't even just recruiting people from the UK, she headed overseas to bring people all the way from America!

Alison really couldn't help but wonder and become suspicious now. Sure, maybe she might've believed that the Sorceress was just trying to build up a powerful empire by finding the most powerful people she could and having them all live in her mansion, but going overseas to find allies? It wasn't unheard of, but it seemed a bit excessive, even for someone as dramatic as the Sorceress. Besides, the real red flag for Alison didn't just come from how far the Sorceress was willing to go to find allies and followers, it was the fact that she was kept on choosing large groups of creatures that seemed to have a knack for fighting.

First, the werewolves. Even though there were only two of them, at least as far as Alison knew, they were both formidable fighters (when they weren't being total idiots). Next was Alison and her entire vampire court. Now, the Confederate and Dark armies (though Cash and Arlyn would've disagreed, Alison had serious doubts that the Sorceress was going to replace either of them. The more obvious thing would be for her to keep both of them and try to combine their forces, if they ever stopped fighting one another)! Even JPG, though not technically a fighter, had been employed to help build robots for the Sorceress. Alison couldn't help but wonder if the Sorceress wasn't intending upon trying to turn everyone in the mansion into her personal army... And what's more, Alison had no clue how many more people the Sorceress was planning on bringing in!

But before Alison could muse more on the matter, a gunshot from behind her rung out and she turned around in time to see another Confederate soldier, rifle extended and the muzzle smoking a little bit. The sound of a falling body echoed in Alison's head and Arlyn uttered an outraged cry. His other men raised their glowing green weapons.

"You cowardly Confederate mongrel!" the Dark Army leader pointed another accusatory finger at Cash. "Distracting us like that! Where is your sense of honor? How can you demand a fair fight when you are just as cowardly as the Union you so despise!"

"All is fair in love and war, my friend," Cash gave Arlyn a wicked grin. Then he cocked his gun again and took a shot at the Dark Army leader.

While the Confederates and Dark Army went at it again, Alison took the opportunity to slide away, climbing up a nearby tree and escaping through the leaves and branches while Cash and Arlyn, below, were distracted with one another. The sounds of screaming and gunfire, and even canon fire eventually, rung in Alison's ears as she darted away. She could hear Cash's southern accent ringing through the dark, spitting and swearing against the Dark Army, vowing that the Confederacy would never quit. Alison couldn't hear any of Arlyn's replies, but the occasional flash of bright green was enough of an answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Another chapter for a new lieutenant and gem, plus Alison's growing suspicion that the Sorceress has more in store for all of them than what they could ever hope to imagine... (Also, for reference, I have the idea that Cash was the first lieutenant on the scene, so this entire fic takes place after the Civil War, though the mansion itself is stuck in a pre-Civil War year because of the time discontinuity in the mansion as the canon states. For example, we'll say that Cash arrives in the year 1863, the werewolves in the late 70s, Alison in the early 90s and JPG around the turn of the century. All the while, the mansion remains in the year 1850 because of the Sorceress' spell.)
> 
> Edit: Can't believe I didn't realize the leader of the Dark Army was named "Arlyn".


	8. Reunion Party

After the incident with the two armies, Alison hadn't been too keen upon exploring the outer edges of the mansion's grounds again, but it seemed that any appearances from the Dark and Confederate armies were rare because, after that first incident, Alison didn't manage to see so much as a single soldier from either side of the quarrel ever again. This was fine by her, but she still couldn't help but wonder what the Sorceress was doing, keeping two large armies at the edges of her estate like that. Were they really all just living out in their in the wild like Cash had said? How were they all able to fit? And who thought that such a living arrangement was a good idea? And why?

At most, Alison figured that, if the Sorceress really was trying for some type of mass-conquest, it would make sense for her to want to bring in some real army men. That much was logical. But as for why she chose to have them live on the outskirts of her forests? Well, at best, it was to keep them far away from her so that they would never think to rebel against her. And perhaps that was why both of them lived in the same area instead of being kept far apart. Alison was guessing that perhaps the real reason the Sorceress kept the Confederates and the Dark Army close, but not too close, was to ensure that they would spend most of their time squabbling with each other, which would keep them distracted.

Dorian had used similar tactics, after all. Every once in awhile, whenever any of the court vampires seemed to be getting too antsy, or ready for some sort of uprising, Dorian would quickly arrange for some other dispute to rise and that would always distract any negative attention away from himself. It was part of the reason he'd been able to keep his throne for so long without any major rebellions. Of course, Alison couldn't say for sure whether or not this really was what the Sorceress was playing at, but it seemed like the most logical conclusion at the moment. She was keeping two armies ready for war, but also keeping them distracted with one another so that they would never think to rebel against her and would not be bothered by why it was taking so long for anything of real significance to happen within the mansion.

But then, at long last, something somewhat exciting did finally happen within the mansion, and that was that the mansion finally got its next honored guest! It all began on a typical night, Alison and JPG relaxing together in the automaton lab.

"-going to see if it works," JPG was right in the middle of showing off her latest invention to her vampire companion. It was a periscope, of sorts, the base connected to her work table and the top reaching all the way up to one of the windows in the foyer. In short, it was a spy device. It was JPG's way of trying to see anyone who was coming into the mansion without ever having to actually go upstairs to check. It was an impressive feat because even though it wasn't particularly hard to build a periscope, given that this one had to go all the way down the red hallway and then through the floor to an open window, all while remaining undetectable, it had taken quite a bit of effort and engineering on JPG's part.

"Ah! It works!" JPG declared, eyes glued to the periscope's bottom. "I can see the front doorsteps and part of the road leading outward. It's not a very wide view and it's kind of hard to see because it's so dark out, but it works! The door's lights cover at least a foot in all directions!"

"Let me see," Alison replied, hopping off of where she was sitting on JPG's workbench to join JPG at her side. The body of the periscope was tied to a pipeline that went from the ground of the corner of the lab up through the ceiling. JPG's periscope did not emerge from the same place the pipe did, but JPG had since turned that pipe into something of a support column for the periscope. Alison extended a hand to gesture for JPG to move aside, but JPG quickly held up her own hand to stop Alison.

"Wait a sec! I think I see... a black carriage? No, wait! A whole bunch of them!" JPG sounded genuinely confused.

"But the last ball was two weeks ago! My father shouldn't be bringing in more human prey already!" Alison voiced JPG's confusion.

"I don't know," JPG's eyes were still glued to the periscope. "Give me a sec and I'll see what comes out of the-HOLY COGS AND GEARS!"

"What?! What?! What is it?" Alison fought the urge to just shove JPG aside, all of her internal alarm systems going off in reply to JPG's panic.

"SPIDER! GIANT! HAIRY! FEMALE! SPIDER!" JPG replied, then she shot backward away from the periscope, accidentally activating her jetpack at the same time and nearly sending herself right through the automaton lab's walls. (She'd since upgraded her jetpack while in the new lab, giving it the ability to hold more fuel for a longer, steadier period of time). From the look on her face, though, it seemed like she wouldn't have minded if she'd shot through every wall in the mansion and right out the other side and far away from the spider woman.

"What!?" normally, Alison would've been more concerned for JPG's wellbeing at the moment, having never seen the girl looking so panicked in all her life, and her having literally just crashed into the wall at top speed, but the periscope overrode Alison's concern so, instead of going over to JPG, she ran over to the periscope. The vampire's jaw dropped.

"Spiders..." JPG hadn't been lying, bluffing, misinterpreting or overreacting. Sure enough, emerging from that long line of black carriages was an entire swarm of the half-woman, half-spider creatures that Alison hadn't seen in a very, very long time...

After making sure that JPG hadn't broken anything after crashing into the wall, Alison exited the lab at once to go talk to the spiders.

"Are you mad?!" JPG cried, chasing after Alison before she could reach the door.

"They're friends of mine," Alison replied. "I have to go see them, ask why they're here," then before JPG could say more, Alison had exited the lab entirely and begun making her way down the red hall. JPG was too nervous to go after her, so she instead resorted to going back to her corner of the lab and peeking out of the periscope again, hoping Alison didn't get eaten alive by these savage and terrifying spider-freaks! JPG was so freaked out, in fact, that she hadn't even noticed that she had cracked one of her jetpack tanks and squished the other in her impact with the wall!

But while JPG stayed back, hidden deep within the automaton lab, Alison climbed the staircase to the foyer. She was recognized at once.

"Alison?!" and the ones who recognized her were none other than Kira and Haruko, Alison's two favorite spider-women. Alison felt something tear at her heart as she looked at her two old friends, but she didn't know if it was guilt, sadness, longing, fear, embarrassment, distaste, distrust, regret, nostalgia, or some combination of all of that. Instead, she could only stare as two of her oldest, closest companions flocked over to her.

"Surely it is! Alison!" Kira cried in amazement and joy. She and Haruko smiled broadly at the vampire and Alison could only smile weakly back.

Although Kira and Haruko were treating her politely now, who could say how they really felt about Alison? She'd pretty much just up and vanished from their lives and she had been gone for at least a few years by now! The vampire really had no clue at all what they thought about her. What truth lay behind those friendly smiles? Where they mad that she had just sort of vanished from their lives? Were they sad? Did they miss her? Were they hurt or indignant? Confused? Interested? Angry? Had they even noticed? Or did they just not care at all? So many questions, and not a single answer and Alison wasn't even sure how to even start to ask. They had just been apart for so long! Alison didn't even know where to start, let alone how! And in that moment, a morose laugh echoed inside of Alison's head...

And to think! Once upon a time, these two spider-women had been some of Alison's closest friends! Once upon a time, she'd known them almost as well as she knew the back of her own hand. Once upon a time, they would spend hours and hours together, talking and playing cards. Outside of a few woodland fairies and sprites, these two spider-women had been Alison's most trusted companions. They had talked about everything together, playing any manner of card game imaginable! But now, it was like she was meeting them for the first time again. Oh, sure, physically, they looked no different. They were still both stunning and sexual, hands intertwined like always, and they still wore the same skimpy black outfits that they always did, but there was an unspoken aura of change between them now and Alison almost didn't recognize them. She remembered names, faces and long nights spent drinking and playing, but it was all rather distant and hazy.

But at last, Alison finally found her voice long enough to reply and stop staring.

"Kira! Haruko!" the vampire gave the spider-women polite but guarded smiles and another flash of guiltiness tore at her heart. Polite but guarded? Since when had Alison ever not trusted Kira and Haruko enough that "polite but guarded" was all they got from her? They used to get genuine and elated smiles, but now Alison couldn't bring herself to do more than treat them with the same distant respect she usually reserved for the others that visited Dorian's court. It made Alison feel bad, but luckily, neither Kira nor Haruko seemed to even notice this change in Alison's demeanor.

"Oh! Yes! Alison! It's good to see you again! It's been so long, hasn't it? Where have you been, anyways? What have you been up to? Why haven't you come to see us sooner? We've missed you! Have you missed us? Do you remember how we used to play cards all the time at your father's parties? Will we ever go back to doing that again? We miss it! We really should take some time to catch up! Unless you've already moved on to bigger and better things? Oh, you must tell us everything! It's been far too long!" back and forth, the couple went, both of them trying to engage Alison in polite and friendly conversation. It was actually kind of sweet of them because it told Alison that they bore her no ill will for all of her years of silence in their regard, but Alison found herself unable to answer even the more simple and superficial questions.

Instead, the vampire gave a rather vague and general reply before slowly turning the conversation around to the spider-women.

"How about you?" the vampire asked, after she gave an oversimplified summary of her life up to this point. "What brings you here?"

"Ah well, it was all thanks to Jorogumo, really," Kira began.

"She's our leader," Haruko interrupted, to explain for Alison. "She was in the first carriage. She's already gone to the roof to build her web."

"Ah," Alison nodded. Although she had missed Jorogumo, JPG having been at the periscope when Jorogumo came in, Alison could already guess what the spider goddess had looked like.

"Yeah, well, you see, she was invited to live in this place by some weird lady called the Sorceress," Kira continued once Haruko finished her explanation and Alison sucked in a breath. Although this did not surprise her in the slightest, she still couldn't help but feel that old curiosity and suspicion ignite in her heart once more.

"She promised us all a great deal of power, protection and prey if we moved in here," Haruko chimed in.

"So of course Jorogumo agreed!" Kira nodded.

"You know Jorogumo would never turn down an offer of a steady supply of fresh meat!" Haruko laughed a little, a sadistic grin crossing her face.

"And nor would we!" Kira smirked in agreement. "So here we all are! Your new roommates!"

They seemed quite pleased, but the moment they mentioned the Sorceress, Alison was on guard again. Adding to the list of vampires, werewolves and soldiers, the Sorceress was now recruiting an entire nest of giant, man-eating spider-women. Not suspicious at all, huh?

"And why did the Sorceress invite Jorogumo, exactly?" Alison asked once Kira and Haruko finished telling their tale. "What was it that Jorogumo had that attracted the Sorceress to her?"

"Well, to be honest, we don't quite know," Haruko answered, sounding a little bit self-conscious.

"The Sorceress only spoke to Jorogumo," Kira explained. "And we only know what Jorogumo decided to tell us. She is our goddess, after all, so she isn't likely to have told us everything that the Sorceress said."

"But don't you at least have a guess about why the Sorceress chose Jorogumo?" Alison tried not to let her questions seem too obvious.

"Perhaps she found our race impressive?" Kira suggested.

"So, for an alliance?" Alison replied.

"Perhaps," Kira repeated. "May I ask why you are so interested?"

"Because I've talked to a few of our other housemates and I'm trying to figure out what we all have in common," Alison replied, managing to answer everything and nothing with that openly honest, yet also deceptively vague, statement.

"Hmmm, well, in that case, I'm assuming that the Sorceress chose Jorogumo for a reason similar to the one for why she chose your father," Kira said slowly as Alison gave a brief description of the other chosen people who lived at this estate.

"It could be that she's trying to start up her own little kingdom," Haruko agreed. "She did mention something about conquering and creating an empire, so she probably is just choosing all of us to act as her first batch of allies!"

The two spider-women continued to bounce ideas off one another while Alison only listened. Although she did remember the Sorceress promising universal domination, hence her reason for coming to Dorian's castle in the first place, Alison just hadn't ever really thought that the Sorceress had been serious. Now, though, she was having second thoughts. Alison remained silent for a little longer, trying to listen to what Kira and Haruko were suggesting, trying to see if any of their other theories about the Sorceress' plans made more sense than Alison's theory.

But after awhile, Kira and Haruko grew tired of theorizing, unbothered by it the way Alison was, and they brought up a new subject.

"Sorceress aside, we are your new housemates from now on and I think it high time we took the chance to catch up!" Haruko said.

"Yeah, Haruko and I were thinking you could join us for a game of cards next time Dorian has a party. Like old times?" Kira added. Then they went back and forth again, but this time they were pleading with Alison instead of trying to theorize with her.

"You always liked to play hard, and we miss that!" Kira said first as she began to plead with Alison.

"Yeah! Some of the men who play with us now can't take it! They get so weak so fast that it's not fun anymore!" Haruko agreed. "But you, Alison, you had always been so much stronger than them! You could always last far longer, and that's what made it fun!"

"So please, come play with us again! Even if only for a little while! Do it for old time's sake!" Kira begged. "We need a proper reunion party! It's high time we got to see each other again! It's been far too long!" Alison, meanwhile, took it all in with an unreadable smile.

To some degree, it relieved her that Kira and Haruko were so adamant about all of them getting back together again just because it meant that neither of the two spider-women bore any ill will towards her even though she had ostensibly shut them out of her life for years on end. But at the same time, their eagerness discouraged her too. Their eagerness reminded Alison that, while she might've gone through a big emotional change through her relationship with JPG, Kira and Haruko hadn't changed at all. They were still the same flirtatious creatures Alison left behind.

While Alison, herself, felt like an entirely new creature, they were still the same unrepentantly man-eating monsters that they always were. They never had the same realization that Alison, herself, did, and because they did not know about Alison's little change of allegiance, they thought it was all too easy for her to come back to them. They were able to go back to the good old days because, for them, those days never left. Those days were only a memory away. They didn't realize that Alison was too far gone to ever be able to fully go back to the way they used to be because the Alison that they had loved back then had been a very different girl. For her the good old days were lifetimes away, a far greater distance than for Kira and Haruko, and neither of them even knew it.

Alison had had good reason for ditching the spider-women after all. Kind, gentle and friendly as they were with Alison, the same could not be said for their human victims, and even though their method of eating wasn't as violent as that of a vampire, it still resulted in innocent blood being shed. It was something she couldn't overlook anymore. Nice and polite as they were to Alison, Alison could never forget what they did to their prey. Now, Alison did respect the spider-women's rights to eat whatever they wanted, Alison just didn't do it herself.

What's more, Alison knew full well that this card game was going to double as a reunion party and, no doubt, the spider-women were going to grill her for every last little detail she could spare. They wanted to know what she had been up to for so very long, and Alison couldn't blame them. But at the same time, there was just so many things that she could not share. There really was a lot to talk about, that much Alison didn't disagree with, but she didn't even know where to start. Since she no longer truly knew where she stood in relationship to Kira and Haruko, she wanted to put some thought into every question they threw at her. She didn't know what was safe to say and what she ought not to reveal.

But in the end, despite feeling emotionally distant from her two old companions, Alison finally allowed herself to be suckered into one little game of cards. The next time Dorian threw a party, which was bound to be very soon, Alison would play one single game with them.

"I suppose just one couldn't hurt," Alison had said slowly, and she really did mean it. As different as she and the spider-women were, one little card game wasn't going to jeopardize her newfound sense of mortality and allegiance. Kira and Haruko had been delighted to hear this agreement.

Two nights later, Alison found herself inside Dorian's throne room for the first time in a very long time.

"Ahhh, just like old times, eh Alison?" Haruko sighed happily, shuffling her deck as Alison finally stepped onto the scene.

"Sure," Alison replied with a weak smile, sitting between her two friends-turned-strangers.

"Awww, our princess still not feeling very well?" Kira teased. She chalked Alison's reluctance up to her general sense of introversion, not having a clue that the real reason went far deeper than that.

"Well, don't worry about that! We have a cure!" Haruko laughed. She nodded at Kira who obliged to raise two large bottles of whiskey out from underneath the little table at which they sat. Then she produced a few wine glasses and several shot glasses.

Three card games, multiple removed articles of clothing and a lot of shots later, Alison was feeling a lot better than before. The drinks were going to her head now and her previous worries were beginning to float away. She managed to keep herself focused and alert, but she could feel herself getting lighter and lighter. It made her feel nice, but it definitely made playing cards a bit trickier, especially when the game was against the likes Kira and Haruko, who practically lived off this kind of thing. It was a struggle to win the game, and they weren't going easy on her.

"Remember, Alison, you can't outdrink us!" Haruko sang, taking two shots at once just to make a point.

"You're out of practice!" Kira agreed with a laugh as she tossed another card onto the pile. Alison could only glare because, technically, they weren't wrong. While Kira and Haruko had been drinking and playing cards every night of their lives, Alison couldn't remember the last time she'd had any sort of alcohol. Her tolerance was embarrassingly low while the spider-women's were as high as ever!

"So, any cards?" Kira demanded playfully when Alison couldn't think of a witty remark to give in response to her earlier jibe.

"Unfortunately not," Alison grunted, but her anger was only a show and they all knew it.

"You know what that means!" Haruko purred, leaning in closer to Alison the moment she heard Alison's rueful confession. Alison's frown slowly turned into another mysterious smile, then she nodded. Almost seductively, the vampire princess reached downward for a piece of clothing to remove, but then, just to mess with her two companions, she made sure that her article of choice was only a sock.

"You're no fun!" Haruko pretended to grow cross as Alison made a big deal out of slowly removing her one sock before tossing it aside.

"Better luck next time," was Alison's only reply and she gave Haruko a downright devious little smirk.

"Now that's the Alison we know and love!" Kira declared, slapping the vampire's back playful and Alison actually laughed in reply.

In the end, however, the spider-women still got what they wanted. Alison managed to win the game, but not before stripping down to a point in which all she had on was a bra. It had been with great delight that Kira and Haruko had watched Alison remove her corset and they had fawned and swooned loud enough for half the ballroom to hear.

"Shut up," Alison growled good-naturedly as she tossed her corset onto the ever-growing pile of her removed clothing.

"Make us!" came the teasing reply, making a big deal out of eyeing Alison's bra. Alison only held up her remaining hand of cards.

But in the end, she did manage to win. By this point, Haruko and Kira were both totally naked, pale skin almost glowing in the candlelight of the ballroom. Alison had to admit that they had incredibly amazing bodies. But at least some of the awe was lost in amusement on Alison's part because it really was never too hard to get Kira and Haruko to strip down completely. They hardly ever wore that much clothing to begin with! But that was just how they liked it! So while the spider-women sat around in nothing but their own skin, giggling like fools and waving seductively at anyone who looked their way, Alison reclined in her seat, proud of the fact that she'd been at least able to retain once piece of clothing...

The drinks were really making her head spin now and, just for a moment, neither JPG nor the Sorceress nor anything else in or about the Sorceress' mansion existed. Instead, it was only Alison, the vampires, Dorian's castle, the spiders, and a wicked game of strip poker with a lot of whiskey to boot. Through a drunken haze, Alison had been transported back to the past and she almost thought that she was in the old ballroom for a second, completely forgetting how different this ballroom looked in compared to the one she left behind years ago. She was lost in a time when her life had been far simpler, though also far more boring and empty...

The lights were bright and the music was loud as Alison contemplated her two old companions. Suddenly, it had only been a few days instead of a few years since last she had engaged in such playful foolishness. The spider-women were grinning seductively at her, just like always, just like before. Alison actually almost felt happy. Maybe she hadn't quite enjoyed the life she used to live, but maybe the alcohol was doing something to her sense of nostalgia as well because, just for a moment, Alison felt good to be in this situation. Despite her past discomforts, Alison found herself thoroughly and genuinely enjoying getting the chance to catch up with Kira and Haruko. But the vampire supposed that was what enough good liquor did to a person. Even the worst memories could shine brightly with nostalgia after enough drinks.

The vampire continued to smile serenely, sharing a few more laughs and drinks with her companions, but then at last Kira seemed to think that it was time to take Alison away. She was too drunk for her own good so, gesturing to Haruko, both of the spider-women quickly got dressed and, after helping Alison pull on her clothes again too, they helped her walk from the ballroom. For all the fun they'd shared this night, it was time to go. Alison needed to sober up, or she'd be drunk even into the next night, and that was so not a good look for her.

From a distance, Dorian watched the trio go, puzzled but pleased to realize that his daughter had not only come to one of his parties of her own free will, but seemed to have enjoyed herself. Or at least, that was what he'd assumed, given how much time she'd spent playing that game with Kira and Haruko, not that he spent too much time watching it when his adoring court was a far better sight to behold.

Kira and Haruko led Alison from the ballroom and back to the foyer with the intent of taking her upstairs to where they knew her bedroom to be. Alison, though still being supported by them, had slowly regained some small amount of sobriety during their short walk away from the ballroom, and managed to ask a coherent question.

"You two live on the roof, right?" she asked. Kira and Haruko both nodded. "Do you think I could see your webs?" the vampire asked next. It was a strange, random question, but as Kira and Haruko knew no harm would come to Alison, they agreed at once and took the vampire up to the roof.

Two things startled a bit more sobriety back into Alison then. The first was just being greeted with the cool night air, far different than what had been passing around the stuffy little ballroom earlier. The second thing was Jorogumo's master web.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Kira sounded proud when Alison made a noise of awe at it. "We all helped make it too! After you left us, we came up here to join Jorogumo and the others and each of them were helping build the web. It really was a group effort!"

Kira and Haruko both continued to extol Jorogumo, the web, and how every spider-woman had helped make it, but that wasn't what had incited the reaction from Alison. It was what lay tangled in one of the web's knots. A big, bright, red gem, just like the one in Dorian's necklace, only this one was a shade brighter. To put it simply, if Dorian's gem had been a garnet, Jorogumo's was a ruby, though Alison somehow already knew that, in the same way Dorian's was no ordinary garnet, Jorogumo's was no ordinary ruby.

"Oh! That little number?" Kira asked after Alison pointed it out. "Jorogumo said she found it on the body of one of her victims back near the start 1915. Just earlier this year, in fact. It had been some pompous, arrogant little adventurer, not much of a looker, and next to nothing to his name, but that gem had caught her eyes and she decided to take it. The adventurer was just an afterthought, a little snack. The gem was Jorogumo's true objective and subsequent prize!"

"She said that the adventurer had gone through some great trial to get it. A fierce naval battle! But, well, we all know that when Jorogumo wants something, she gets it, no matter the deceit and trickery she must use to get it..." Haruko trailed off, a wicked smile spreading on her face.

"Anyway, after Jorogumo managed to seduce the adventurer and eat him, that little gem became a trinket, a trophy, and it's been with her ever since. She always spins it back into her master web just because she likes it so much," Kira finished, looking up at the dark red object that glittered dimly in the moonlight overhead. She could still remember the day Jorogumo had returned to the spider court with that gem, so incredibly proud of it that she threw a little celebration for it. It had, literally, become a crown jewel in her collection after that, always resting near the center of her web on a little pedestal she had made just for the gem...

The drunkenness slowly began to wrap itself around Alison's mind again, the initial shock of seeing that eerily familiar gem fading away. With nothing else to see except other, less impressive webs, Alison allowed Kira and Haruko to take her back downstairs and inside the house. Other spider-women, some still in human form while others had returned to their hybrid states, watched the trio walk by their webs, but just like Kira and Haruko had already known, not a single one of them made any attempt to harm Alison. They only ate men, after all, and Alison was no man. Additionally, since Kira and Haruko still did consider Alison a friend even after all this time, they would've protected her even if any of the spiders had tried to take a bite out of the vampire. But they were able to pass on safely, so it really was a moot point anyway.

Kira and Haruko parted ways with Alison once they were back inside. She had made it clear she wished to go to bed, but Kira and Haruko were not done partying yet, so at the top of the foyer steps, the trio parted once more. Kira and Haruko were very fond in their goodbyes and even Alison couldn't help but offer up a smile. This time, it was genuine. Or at the very least, the liquor had put enough of a stint on her mind that she was suddenly living in the past once more, when she and the two spider-women were still very close.

"Goodbye and goodnight, my dear," Kira told Alison, kissing her cheek warmly.

"We wish you all the best and we hope to see you again soon," Haruko said next, kissing Alison's other cheek once Kira was finished.

"It has been a great pleasure getting to see you both again," Alison replied, smiling. She continued to watch them go even after they were out of her line of sight then, at last, she slowly turned back to her own bed in the master bedroom. By the time her head hit the pillow, she had forgotten all about Kira and Haruko's rooftop tour and Jorogumo's web. She had forgotten all about the big red gem that rested within the web's silky strands and the fact that it was now the year 1915, about two decades since Alison had first joined the mansion...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: More foreshadowing, more buildup, more characters and character development, more gems, more timey-whimey theory, more of the Sorceress recruiting everyone, and just more of Alison in general. After all, Kira and Haruko did say that Alison used to play cards with them, which I think is a really intriguing thing that I want to know more about.
> 
> Partly, I want to know if Alison actually liked the spiders or if she was just being polite and partly, I want to see this game unfold because I honestly can't see someone as distant and dignified as Alison playing drunken strip-poker, yet that's what Kira and Haruko's line about playing hard with Alison implies. Also, more queer Alison and more queer women in general, in EtN or anywhere, is always a good thing!
> 
> On that note, I like to think that the Jorogumos are bisexual but homoromantic. They'll sleep with males or females, but they will only enter in lasting, romantic relationships with other females since they eat males. (In my fic, Haruko and Kira are lovers, though there really isn't much to support that within the series and it isn't even that obvious here. I'm sorry!) But I'm up for debate about these headcanons!
> 
> Also, I know bras were only just invented in 1889, but I don't know the exact layering of a Victorian-era woman's clothes, so let's just pretend that Alison was wearing a bra under her corset under her dress. It would make for a very long round of strip-poker if everyone wore that much clothing, no? LOL.
> 
> And JPG is me when it comes to spiders. My arachnophobia is crazy bad. 
> 
> Also, I know this story makes the spider-women seem really old, but I can't find any info about how long the Jorogumos live. It's at least 400 years, though, because the one page I did find said that a Jorogumo was only created when an orb-weaver spider reached age 400.
> 
> Going off of that logic, I like to think that the Jorogumos have really long lifespans. I also like to think that they age slowly, spending most of their time looking like sexy young women (though I think they do go through "little girl" and "old lady" phases, but those are far shorter in comparison). This would explain why they look no different to Alison even though they've been apart for years. What's more, such a long lifespan would also explain why Alison could disappear from their lives for like 20 years and they wouldn't even think twice about it. 20 years is short for a creature that's already at least 400 just by virtue of being a Jorogumo (if we're assuming the EtN Jorogumos are supposed to be exact copies of the ones from actual Japanese myth).


	9. Another Sorceress

Alison slept through the entire rest of that night and the subsequent day and she did not wake up until nearly 20 hours after her head had hit her pillow. On the bright side, though, she woke up without a hangover, having slept right through it by mistake, and now she was free to spend the whole next night with JPG. Alison found herself feeling far more relaxed with JPG than the spider-women and she knew then that, as fondly as she regarded Kira and Haruko, JPG would be the only one able to make her feel this safe and happy now. Her days of card games with the spider-women were over. She even made sure to tell the two as much. It had saddened, and even hurt, the spider-women to hear Alison ending their relationship on such a formal and, in their eyes, sudden, note, but there was little they could do to stop the vampire princess. Instead, they only took Alison's request in stride and promised that even if they were no longer to be good or close friends, they would still remain on good terms.

"At the very least, will you promise not to entirely forget us?" Kira had requested in response to Alison telling her and Haruko that there would be no more endless nights spent drinking, talking, laughing and playing.

"Only if you promise you bear me no ill will for my decisions," Alison had replied with a sad smile.

"Of course not," Kira nodded and Haruko echoed Kira's response. "As long as you will remember us, we will remember you," the pair vowed, and that was where the three friends departed.

"But if you ever are up for another card game, you know where to find us!" Haruko added and Alison nodded back with a slightly happier smile.

From then on, although Alison did stop in to chat with the spider-women every now and then, most of her time remained with JPG. And that was how it carried on for a good time longer. At least until yet another guest made her arrival into the mansion. But this time, she didn't come from anywhere that Alison or JPG had ever heard of. Instead, she came from a dimension entirely her own.

It all began upon a night when Cedric had made some special new technology and he, in his excitement, had not only decided to stay up all night working on it, but he demanded that JPG do the same. As employees of the Sorceress, they had no need to keep a tight schedule. They could sleep as long as they pleased so long as they could prove that they were still making progress in a security system for the mansion. The only reason Cedric retained his early bedtime was due to how easily he tired, but he knew he could afford all-nighters whenever he wanted. Now was one of those nights, and JPG was going to help him. He had commanded it of her.

"This is a revolutionary new invention!" he had cried. "I already know you stay up late cavorting with the other guests, so it's not like my request for your help is unreasonable! Besides, you are my employee first. You are under obligation to stay and help me! You can go party later, or some other night. One night will not kill you!"

"Yes sir," JPG had replied with a frown on her face. Her boss could be a real jerk! Then the old man turned to Alison, who was only down there because she had come to see JPG, under the assumption that they would've been able to spend some time together that night. Apparently not.

"I am afraid that I am going to have to ask you to leave, Ms. Alison," he told her curtly, eyes narrowed.

"As you wish," Alison gave him a very tight-lipped smile in response, even curtseying just a little, before excusing herself from the lab quickly. It was not due to any fear or nervousness on her part, though Cedric seemed to think so because he watched her leave with a grim satisfaction upon his aged face, but rather, it was Alison's way of trying to keep her composure. She'd only directly interacted with Cedric a few times before, but none of them were ever fun and it always took at least a little bit of her self-control to not get mad whenever he treated her so rudely.

Compassionate as Alison was, and though she would never harm Cedric, she still hated to be treated so rudely by him. It didn't matter if that was how Cedric treated everyone, as far as Alison was concerned, such blatant disregard of simple etiquette was preposterous and inexcusable! But what could she do about it? Even from their very first meeting, Cedric had been totally unafraid of her and refused to give her even an ounce of politeness or respect. Alison still remembered that day with great disdain and distaste...

It all began only a few days after JPG and Cedric had joined the mansion and it had all been JPG's idea.

"I think it's high time you met Cedric properly!" she had declared one night.

"Do I have to?" Alison asked, looking less than excited by the prospect.

"Well, I mean, you can, so why not?" JPG replied.

"Because every time you speak of him, you speak of a man who is either foolish, stupid, selfish, rude or prideful. Do you really think that I would have any interest in meeting someone like that?" Alison scoffed at the very idea, but JPG was stubborn.

"Ok, so maybe I do complain about him a lot, but he's not always that bad!" she defended, but when Alison only raised an eyebrow, JPG conceded. "Ok. So yeah, he is that surly and grumpy," she admitted. "But I still want you to meet him!"

And the reason JPG was so insistent upon Alison and Cedric finally getting to meet properly was because she wanted the two biggest people in her life to know one another. As good as JPG was at keeping secrets, she was far too chatty and open to enjoy doing it. She'd kept Alison hidden from Cedric for many years, coming up with excuses whenever Cedric seemed to catch on that JPG was seeing someone. She never breathed a word about the vampire to her boss, but now JPG finally had an excuse for knowing her. The way JPG saw it, they were both workers for the Sorceress, so JPG could just lie and say she met Alison on the first day here and the two became fast friends! That way, JPG would no longer have to keep Alison a secret! And mostly, JPG just wanted for these two figures that were so important to her to finally meet one another.

So, despite Alison's protests, JPG finally arranged a meeting and Alison reluctantly caved in. The meeting took place in the early morning, just as the sun was rising. While Alison waited in the lab, JPG fetched Cedric.

"I still don't know why you insisted upon waking me up extra early today!" the old man yawned in annoyance as JPG dragged him to their lab.

"Because!" she replied eagerly. "I want you to meet a new friend of mine! She's a new housemate of ours, also invited by the Sorceress to live here, so I think you should get to know her!" the younger inventor told the older as she shoved the door open and pointed at the vampire already inside.

"Hello," Alison greeted cautiously as a tired Cedric walked slowly over to her, eyes still half shut with sleep.

"Morning," he grumbled, but this was not out of displeasure, just tiredness. His tone would turn sour soon enough, though, because despite Alison's best attempts at a polite first impression, Cedric just wasn't in the mood. Instead, after JPG turned on a light and Cedric was able to get a better look at Alison's face, he began to frown, and this time, it wasn't just from tiredness.

"Say! You're with that group upstairs, aren't you?" he demanded in recognition. "The loud ones, who are always throwing those late-night parties in the ballroom! Are you one of them? Are you one of those party animals?" the man spoke the words with venom in his voice, even throwing Alison a harsh and accusatory glare. Alison, stunned by how rude he was, could only nod. They'd barely even met and he was already treating her like dirt! It was just such a surprise to her that she could only blink as he continued to scowl and curse at her and the rest of her group. She didn't even have the chance to explain the nuance in her relationship to the other "party animals" upstairs.

"Ah! You are! I thought you were! You are one of those dreadful, obnoxious and overly loud fools who insist upon throwing a ball almost every single night for the whole night when a poor old man is just trying to get his sleep!" he despaired. "I knew I recognized you! Disgraceful lot! I should've known! I bet you're just as bad as the others! Loud, rude, idiotic! Yes, I see it now! You even look like trouble!" Cedric growled.

"Now Cedric," JPG finally interceded as her boss continued to disparage Alison and her court. "You and I both know you sleep through their parties every single night. There's no need to be rude to our new friend," she cast an apologetic look at Alison who had somehow managed to keep a relatively straight face through the entire thing.

When her surprise began to turn to outrage, she found herself inwardly relieved that she had since taken a more peaceful path in life. Had she been anything like the vampires, the "party animals", upstairs, retaining their temperament and lust for blood, Alison would've ripped Cedric's throat out by now. That man had a lot of nerve to be so rude and assuming right out of the gate! He didn't even seem to realize who he was really talking to and it took all of Alison's strength not to let him know right then and there. If he wanted a "party animal", she could give him one!

But Cedric wasn't done. Instead, he missed the tranquil fury on Alison's face and began to disparage JPG.

"Don't you 'now, Cedric' me, young miss!" he snapped. "You know I don't appreciate you bringing this unskilled, untrained riff raff down into my precious lab space, so unless you can keep her under control and make sure she doesn't go around touching or messing with my stuff, then we are going to have some serious problems! Do you understand that?"

"Yes sir," JPG responded at once, by pure instinct alone. Although she was unafraid of her old boss, it was just habit for her to respond as though she were a soldier and he was the drill sergeant.

Alison, meanwhile, was in a blind rage. Although Cedric's words had been directed at JPG, it was clear that the message was meant for both of them. And to hear this man saying that Alison needed to be "kept under control" and not "touch or mess with anything" as though she were some sort of wild animal or immature child was where she drew the line! She didn't need to be kept on a leash to behave! What an insult! The vampire took such offense to the remark that she dug her nails into the nearby wooden worktable and actually left deep scratches in its surface.

Cedric took leave of the lab after that, getting dressed and ready to work. Alison remained in the lab until she heard him returning, then she took a very, very quick leave of the area and went back to the tactic of hiding at once. She never visited JPG in the daylight again, instead going back to the times when her visits were secret. She had made a silent vow to herself that she would never speak with Cedric again unless it was absolutely necessary. Luckily, JPG seemed to agree with her on that, so they went back to the nightly visits and Cedric was none the wiser.

The same rules applied even still today and as Cedric demanded that JPG stay behind in the lab to work with him, Alison darted out as fast as she could before her temper could get the best of her. She had no problem with fighting humans, but the problem was that Cedric was so old and brittle that even a few light blows from Alison could do lasting damage. Not wanting to accidently kill him, this meant that Alison was forced to take whatever he said in stride, no matter how mad it made her. Had he been Calvin or Vera, she would not have hesitated to start a fight!

But now this meant that Alison was to spend the night alone. For once, Dorian wasn't throwing a party, so Alison didn't even have that as an option. She supposed that she could go to the roof to visit Kira and Haruko, but she finally decided against that, choosing instead to take a walk around the gardens. Sure, the last two times she'd tried the estate, she'd run into werewolves and armies, but this night, she was planning upon keeping it small. So the vampire took leave of the mansion and entered into the cool night air. But if Alison met werewolves and armies before, then it was only fitting that she would meet another strange and wonderful creature again tonight. This time, however, the person Alison met was beyond that of a werewolf or a mere human soldier. Instead, the person Alison met upon this night was another sorceress. Oh joy of joys.

Alison's walk around the garden began well enough, but when she reached that old fountain where she had defeated the werewolves so long ago, she noticed someone else perusing the area. And it was not someone Alison had ever seen before! It was no common servant or gardener and it was no vampire or spider-woman. Alison approached her quietly, wanting to see who it was before she made her presence known. If she was able to do this correctly, this would mark the first time Alison got the drop on this nighttime visitor as opposed to the other way around.

Alison walked stealthily over to the woman and noticed her performing what appeared to be some sort of magic. Alison, though she could not make out the words, could hear the stranger chanting and waving her hands and blue and white lights danced off her fingertips. Yup. Another sorceress. Suddenly reminded of the strange lady that had forced Alison to live this life before vanishing away from the estate entirely, Alison found herself feeling uncharacteristically bold and she dared to speak out at the stranger, voice authoritative and threatening.

"Who goes there?!" she demanded, but the new sorceress seemed unphased by Alison's sharp tone. Although she did turn around to look the vampire in the eye, there was no fear, anger or defensiveness in her face. Instead, there was only openness, honesty and even a bit of sadness that Alison had not expected to see. Despite her prior reserves, Alison felt her wariness fade at once. That world-weary look in the stranger's eye was something Alison had seen far too often in her own and Alison, at once, felt that this witch, though another sorceress she may have been, was trustworthy. This one, Alison felt, was better than the one who owned the mansion.

"My name is Sireen," the new sorceress said. Even her voice was soft and gentle, honest and pensive. It wasn't as loud, dramatic or commanding as the one in charge of the mansion. But her appearance was definitely just as extreme and extravagant!

While the Sorceress who owned the mansion dressed in a very gawdy outfit, covered in fancy feathers with a V-cut practically down to her stomach, what made this new sorceress odd was in how other-worldly her outfit appeared to be. Maybe the Sorceress' outfit was loud and gaudy, but Sireen's was not. Its strangeness came from how foreign and unusual it looked. She had brown skin, purplish makeup covering her face from the cheeks upward. There were two black lines coming from the bottom of her mouth. Her hair was a wild, tangled mass of brown and, resting within it were two big antlers. Alison briefly wondered how she had missed this woman's arrival to the estate. Although Alison had seen an array of weird creatures, she was certain that she had never seen this one before.

"Were you invited here by the Sorceress too?" the vampire asked the witch once she finished her little inspection.

"Not I, but an old enemy of mine. I only came with her, to try and stop her..." Sireen trailed off, eyes darkening.

"And who was this old enemy?" Alison pressed. Great. Was there going to be another internal conflict within the mansion now too? As if the two armies weren't bad enough! Now was there going to be a magic variant too?

"An Ice Witch," said Sireen. "She was the one the Sorceress really wanted, because she possessed such a great power over the ice. The Sorceress offered her land to conquer and freeze in exchange for her service, and the greedy Ice Witch did not hesitate to agree," she sounded bitter.

"And you?" Alison asked, she could feel it that she was about to broach a sore topic.

"I came along, snuck onto the back of the black carriage that drove them away," Sireen replied.

"But why?" Alison asked.

"Because she, the Ice Witch, froze my dearest friend and companion, Torhil the Undying, and I wish to free him again," she then gestured, with an elegant arm, to what Alison had totally missed before. It was a large ice sculpture of a giant man, his weapon still raised over his head. Or rather, it was a tomb. It was no sculpture. Seeing the grief on Sireen's face, Alison realized that the reason the statue looked so detailed was because it was a real man, frozen over completely, entombed in the ice tighter than corpse in a coffin. His name rung like a cruel irony in Alison's ears. The Undying. Ha! But Sireen seemed so sure that she could save him. Despite herself, Alison felt compelled to help.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Alison asked cautiously, and for the first time since Alison had met her in those short few minutes, Sireen began to smile. It was weak and sad, but there was a genuine gratitude and affection within it.

"Not you, but others," the mysterious woman replied.

"Others?" Alison echoed. "Are you trying to bring more of your people here?"

"No, not others from a different realm. Others from a different time..." then the woman explained.

According to Sireen, she, Torhil and the Ice Witch had all come from a realm outside of Alison's world. It was a place one could reach only through intense magic, hence why the Sorceress and her black carriages had been able to do it, but no one else. But because it was a different realm, the timeline had gone differently and the laws of reality were slightly different there than here. In Sireen's world, prophecies and soothsayers were the norm. Maybe in Alison's world, fortune-tellers were much rarer, but in Sireen's, although it still was not a common practice, it was something of a career there. Sireen, herself, was such a prophet and had received a prophecy concerning the Sorceress. The prophecy spoke of nine heroes from another time and place. They would come to the mansion one day and they would be the ones with the power to defeat the Ice Witch and save Torhil from his frozen tomb.

"And you're sure this prophecy is true?" Alison asked. Once again, in her world, soothsayers were not taken quite as seriously. Though real fortune-tellers did exist, everything they said was often taken with a grain of salt.

"Yes," Sireen responded. Although she understood Alison's skepticism, she was absolutely resolute in her belief that the prophecy would come to pass just as she had seen it in her dreams back in her realm. "The moment I heard that prophecy and the moment the Sorceress arrived, I knew I had to go with her and the Ice Witch. If I wanted any chance of saving my beloved Torhil, I had to go after them," she said.

"But how did you get Torhil here?" Alison asked and, despite herself, Sireen laughed a little.

"It may sound silly, but I took up a sled and tied it to the back of the carriage before tying Torhil to the sled," she confessed and even Alison smiled a little at the mental image of this giant man sledding along after a black carriage straight out of a winter wonderland and right into the mansion.

"But as comic as it sounds, it had to be done," Sireen continued, growing serious again. "The risk was worth it, because those nine heroes from this realm will be the only hope against the Ice Witch's tyranny in mine. If I want even a chance to save my home and my Torhil, I cannot allow this opportunity to slip through my fingers!" Sireen finished with a grim expression, but when she turned back to look at Torhil, Alison almost thought she saw a tear sparkle in Sireen's eye. Just for a moment, Alison imagined what it might've been like had she been Sireen and Torhil been JPG. The thought made her colder than any Ice Witch ever could have.

For a moment, silence reigned between the vampire and the witch before the vampire remembered something else.

"You said the nine heroes would come from a different time," Alison said. "What do you mean by that? How long will we have to wait?"

"I cannot answer that exactly," Sireen confessed sadly. "But from what I understand of the prophecy, the Sorceress has not only found the strength to manipulate space, hence her cross-dimensional travel, but she is attempting to manipulate time as well. If that is true, then I can live here, ageless and unchanged, until the day that my saviors arrive, however far in the future that may be. The world outside the borders of this mansion continue to live normally while we are subject to all the reality warping the Sorceress can muster up. We will remain here, frozen in time, until those heroes come to us to set us free..." Sireen made a face while Alison's eyes widened. In one sentence from Sireen, a great mystery had just been solved.

Although everything about the mansion was strange, one of the strangest things of all, to Alison, was time itself. Time seemed to flow normally, day turning into night turning into day turning into night, but for some reason, the vampire's perception of the passage of time was still shaky. She could remember what she did in the distant past, like what she did yesterday or the party she attended last week or the hunt she went on last month, but for some reason, all those memories came to her in a series of days instead of in years. It was like the longest unit of time her brain was able to process anymore was months. She couldn't remember what year it was anymore and she couldn't tell how many years she might've been in this mansion even though, as logic dictated, she should've only needed to count in increments of 365 sunrises or sunsets.

But for some reason, no matter how hard Alison tried to do this, her sense of time would always slip back through her fingers, leaving her with the feeling that she had been here for a very long while, but also, at the same time, she felt as though not a single day had passed since her arrival, though this was entirely unfounded! Or was it? Because even though the sun continued to rise and fall every 24 hours, some of the mortals living on the estate, like JPG and Cedric, never aged. For all the days and nights that went by, which Alison was sure were enough to constitute decades even though she had no way of confirming this, JPG never looked a day older and Cedric, though ancient, didn't look a day closer to dying than he did when he and JPG first arrived to the mansion long ago.

JPG, herself, had guessed that the Sorceress had thrown ageless immortality in with the deal since no other mortal on the estate seemed to age either, but Alison hadn't been entirely sure. Now, though, the answer was clear. The Sorceress had somehow put a time spell on the estate, keeping it frozen in one single year over and over again so that while the inhabitants of the mansion did experience full years, the calendar, for them, technically never moved ahead beyond whatever year it had been when the Sorceress first cast the spell. That was why Alison could only remember months passing, but never years, even though she was sure she had been here for far more than one, or even 10! JPG and the other mortals technically were still aging, but because of the time loop, they all only aged one year before restarting again.

That was why Alison's sense of time had been so off! All the times when she couldn't remember how long it had been! All the times when days somehow became years without her even realizing! All the times she couldn't remember how many birthdays she'd celebrated! All the times when she could only remember in months and not years! That was because of the Sorceress' time spell! She had kept them all stuck in one year for decades! It was why Alison couldn't remember the passage of time in units of years, because this mansion only had one year! It was stuck in an endless loop of the same year, so while months would pass, in some sense, years technically did not. It all made so much sense now!

"Yes," Sireen confirmed the time-lock spell. "The prophecy foretold of the Sorceress' coming and promised that, if we were patient, nine others could come along, and they could be the ones to stop her. I've even heard rumor that there is a better, clearer copy of this prophecy that is hidden within the very walls of the mansion. I've heard it said that the true key to defeating the Sorceress is hidden in a journal resting within the mansion itself!" Sireen added. "I have yet to find anything," she confessed. "But perhaps you will have a better-" but before Sireen could finish, a loud and angry screech filled the darkness and she and Alison both whipped around in time to see two giant bird-women, one orange and one blue, lunging at them, sharp talons extended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: So yes, now we're throwing the Ice Witch into the fray! I'll give her a real name, and appearance, in the next chapter. Also, if that last part about the time theory was confusing, just ask. I can explain it better in a comment.


	10. New Allies

"Look out!" Alison cried, then on pure instinct and reflex alone, she shoved Sireen backward with one hand and swatted at one of the bird-women, the blue one, with her other hand. Alison was nobody's fool when it came to combat. No matter how spur-of-the-moment the fight was, the vampire was always ready with a counterattack. It was why she remained undefeated across the land.

"Be careful!" Sireen cried as Alison shielded her. "Those are the Ice Witch's harpies! Their claws are coated with a highly poisonous substance!"

"So are my fangs!" Alison replied without turning around to look at Sireen. Instead, her eyes never left the harpy in front of her.

Alison allowed the implication of her statement to sink into Sireen's head while she lunged again, this time at the orange harpy. The harpy screeched and took a swing at Alison, but she easily deflected the blow with one hand before coming in with a punch from her other hand. She hissed all the while, fangs extended and ready to sink into a throat. The blue harpy took the opportunity to jump onto Alison's back, but that was when Sireen finally intervened. Though she was mortal, unlike her companion, who was a vampire as she had come to know, she was no coward. Instead, she picked up a large stick off the ground and swung. It didn't do much in the way of damage, but it surprised the harpy so much that it accidently released Alison, freeing the vampire from all that added weight.

"Well, well, well! What have we here?" a voice, soft and low, suddenly echoed from a few feet behind the quarreling quartet. Instantly, the harpies backed off, leaping away from Alison and Sireen and then retreating backward towards the voice that had spoken out to them. Sireen and Alison, regaining their bearings, also turned in that direction. Alison sucked in a breath at what she saw. Although no one said it, no one needed to. As sure as she was the princess of the vampires, this ethereal and godly woman standing before them, emerging from the shadows with the harpies flanking her sides like bodyguards, was the Ice Witch. Alison wasn't normally affected by temperature, but all at once, she felt deathly cold.

The Ice Witch seemed to have emerged from the night itself, appearing practically out of nowhere. But once she was there, it was impossible to miss her. For one thing, she radiated cold. Ice and snow seemed to follow her like a fog and it didn't take more than a few seconds for the entire area to gain a light coating of frost. A cold white fog hung in the midnight air as ice hissed across the emerald sea of grass beneath everyone's feet. But for another, the Ice Witch was such an intriguing individual, visually, that Alison was certain that even without the cold, it would be impossible to ever overlook someone such as her. She was tall, thin, lithe and powerful. Her frame was slender but sturdy. Her skin was as pale, smooth and white as snow. It was speckled with flecks of ice. She wore a long, silver dress that gleamed white in the moonlight. Whether it was crystals or icicles that made the dress so silvery and reflective, Alison didn't know. It could've easily been a mixture.

And the dress' shoulders spiraled upwards into several silver tendrils, each speckled with ice and snow as well. They framed her face, alongside long shiny, silky locks that were done up in a messy but gorgeous white bun. Her face was just as unnaturally white and smooth as the rest of her skin. Ice dotted her cheeks, glittering like crystals. She was incredibly beautiful, but incredibly terrifying too, just like a snowstorm. And just like a snowstorm, she came in through a flurry of bitterly cold ice. The shining icicles and snowflakes adorned her silvery-white gown like gemstones seemed to flash as she made her approach.

"Karin. It has been far too long," Sireen growled, unfazed by the Ice Witch and her stunning entrance.

"It is Queen Karin to you, my dearest Sireen," the Ice Witch, Karin, responded calmly, slowly, voice just as soft and gentle as a flurry. She continued to saunter towards Sireen and Alison, movements slow and graceful, while the harpies awkwardly hopped and flapped along after her, doing a very poor job of emulating the control and poise she so naturally possessed. It was almost a comical difference. While the Ice Witch was beauty and grace, the harpies were ugly and awkward. Where the Ice Witch glided, they staggered and slumped.

"Queen? Bah! Even our land's worst tyrants were better, more capable leaders than you!" if the Ice Witch's magic wasn't freezing the very air they were all breathing, Sireen's tone would do the trick. She continued to glare daggers, arms crossed in contempt, as Karin drew even closer. Sireen's eyes were just as cold as Karin's magic. Alison said nothing and made no movements, only watching with the fiercest of concentrations as the Ice Witch continued to approach, every footstep she took freezing the ground beneath them. All around them, a snow had begun to fall.

At last, the two witches were face to face, noses only inches apart. Sireen continued to gaze unflinchingly at Karin, angry and fierce.

"Oh, my poor, dear, brave, silly little thing. Still so jealous that I was always a better sorceress than you," Karin crooned. Her voice might've been soothing, good for singing a lullaby, had it not been so filled with venom, hatred and disdain. "You never did like how I was always so much better than you, so much worthier for the throne. But really now, do you honestly think that you could ever hope to defeat me? Even in a realm outside of our own?" the Ice Witch titled her head and the icicles that adorned her long, silver-white gown and crystalline crown rustled softly as she did so. It was amazing how soft and quiet she managed to be, despite how obviously prideful and angry she was.

"I did more than hope, Karin," Sireen growled again, narrowing her dark eyes as the Ice Witch continued to taunt her, smiling coldly.

"Well, I must admit, it is bold of you to recruit a vampire, but even she will not withstand the bitter cold of my icy wrath!" Karin promised, then she turned towards Alison. Even though her tone had been cruel, morbidly determined, the face with which she gazed upon Alison was anything but. It almost took the vampire aback. While Karin's words had been evil, her face was empty, expressionless, unreadable. Instead, she only looked into Alison's eyes and, suddenly, it was just the two of them. That was all that existed anymore. Then the Ice Witch exhaled.

All at once, Alison felt her face begin to freeze and, slowly, the rest of her body followed suit. She could only continue to stare as the Ice Witch's freezing breath ghosted across her face, chilling her to the bone. Her mind began to slip away from itself as well as her body locked up. Alison knew Karin was trying to freeze her to death, but she could do nothing to stop it, body totally unresponsive. She thought she could hear Sireen calling to her. Or maybe it was the harpies, screeching in their horrific unison. She couldn't really tell at this point. Her body and mind weren't responding. They were hardly registering anything. Instead, she could only stand there and take it as her world got colder, darker and smaller with every passing second as Karin continued to exhale a merciless and endless winter wind over her body...

But then, right before Alison could freeze over completely and share Torhil's cruel fate, who should arrive but a strange, scrawny little man. Like Karin before him, he seemed simply to appear right from the heart of the night itself. With what was either a battle cry or a shriek of terror, he swung what appeared to be a large peel, an object used to retrieve food from an oven, at the Ice Witch. It hit its mark and caused her to collapse. She was by no means dead, scarcely even wounded, but because the blow had been so unexpected and so hard, despite how scrawny the man who had hit her was, the Ice Witch still collapsed to her knees. Unable to complete her icy magic, Alison quickly began to thaw and her mind and mobility returned to her as fast as they had left.

"Whoa! Who is that?!" the vampire demanded once she finished thawing completely. She stared in confusion at the trembling, gangly man who was now clutching the large peel and shaking like a child. It almost looked like he was trying to hide behind his peel and he was so thin that Alison thought he might actually be able to pull it off! Alison felt the strong urge to protect him, but it was Sireen who made the first move.

"Sampson! Thank goodness!" Sireen cried. At her own feet were the Ice Witch's two harpy bodyguards. She must've dispatched of them while Sampson went to save Alison. Now, like their mistress, the two bird-women were face-down on the snowy ground.

"Ah! Yes! Ma'am! Sampson! That's me! I'm here! Sorry I'm late! But I made it!" Sampson's voice was trembly and high-pitched. He sounded more like a frightened child than an adult! He tried to salute Sireen and only ended up slapping himself in the head with his own peel. Alison wasn't sure whether to laugh or cringe. She opened her mouth to ask how Sireen knew him, but didn't get the chance before the Ice Witch and harpies all began to stir, slowly rising up from the icy ground. Sireen took charge once again, tone going from relieved to urgent.

"Sampson! Nå!" she cried, then she held out a hand and the man responded immediately. With shaking fingers, he tore something off of his neck and tossed it to Sireen, whimpering as he did so. The moment the object flew out of his hand, he went back to clutching at his peel like a lifeline while the Ice Witch and her minions slowly got to their feet.

"What sort of foolishness is this?" she hissed, voice sounding like a winter wind. Though it was clear she was enraged beyond words, for some reason, her tone still never rose above its soft and gentle hiss. Maybe she couldn't physically speak any louder? Alison didn't know. What did know, however, was that they were all in big trouble...

"Tyfonas, Thyella, attack!" the Ice Witch waved her hand and, at once, the harpies both lunged at Alison and her two new allies.

"Get back!" Alison thundered, clawing at the blue harpy, Tyfonas. Thyella, the orange harpy, leapt right over Alison and towards Sampson and Sireen. Sampson yelped and brought his peel up again. Thyella slammed right into it and, at the same time, Sireen forced a bit of her own magic out of her hand and right at the harpy. She was nowhere near as powerful as Karin, but some magic was better than no magic.

"Oh! You stupid little fools!" Karin growled, though whether she meant the harpies or Alison and company was up for debate. She said no more, however, choosing instead to wave her long, pale arms towards the dark sky. All at once, the falling snow became razor-sharp hail and the winds kicked up in speed, intensity and chill. Alison, Sireen and Sampson all cried out in pain and shock as they were suddenly attacked by a far fiercer foe than before: the winter wind itself. Karin, meanwhile, only chuckled softly, but it permeated through the howling winds and her three attackers heard her laughter loud and clear. Meanwhile, the harpies came in for another attack, unbothered by the gale raging around them.

"Pathetic, puny mortals! Do not dare defy your Ice Queen! I, Karin, am the one true leader of Isenhjelm. I am all that ever was and all that ever shall be and I will soon lead this realm as well! Kneel, and perhaps your deaths will be quick!" she commanded, trying to use the winds to force Alison, Sampson and Sireen to bow. "You cannot defeat the most powerful sorceress of two realms! Don't even try!" Karin continued, scoffing a little as she continued to wave her arms over her three struggling opponents. Her harpies screeched gleefully, also tormenting the trio in what was almost their way of bragging about their own superiority due to their relationship with the Ice Witch.

Alison hissed in pain as the ice stung her skin. She crouched down, extended her fangs and drew her shoulders back, ready to attack again, but no more violence was needed on her part. Instead, Sireen finished it off. She forced herself off her knees, holding up the mysterious object from Sampson's neck. The woman began to chant in some foreign language that Alison had never, in all her years and travels across the globe while being a vampire, heard even once before. Slowly, the thing in her hand began to glow, emitting a pink light. As though in a reply, something on the Ice Witch's chest began to glow as well, though it was a light blue instead of rosy pink. Then, the two harpies suddenly clutched their ears as though they had just heard a horrible, piercing noise. That was when Sireen uttered her next command over the buffeting winter wind.

"Alison! Grab the gem!" and Alison somehow knew what Sireen meant. She lunged forward at once, colliding with the Ice Witch.

"Ah! What's this?!" the Ice Witch hissed, but her anger turned to amusement quickly. "Foolish little vampire! Do you really think that just because you defeated death once that you will do so again?" she demanded. "What prize has my dear, foolish little Sireen promised you in exchange for your services? I warn you now that she will not be able to keep up with her promises to you. She was never even as half as powerful as I!" Karin raised her head haughtily. "Serve me! The better queen! And I can give you riches and powers beyond anything someone like you could ever even dream of!" Karin insisted, waving a hand and creating a glittering arch of snow over her head.

Alison felt a million replies dancing on the tip of her tongue, but her forced herself to swallow them all down. She still opened her mouth, but not to speak. Instead, she lunged forward again, sinking her fangs right into Karin's chest, teeth encircling the glowing object, the gem, embedded within smooth white chest. Alison then began to bite down, ignoring the Ice Witch's outraged and agonized screams. As Alison bit down, fangs sinking deeper and deeper into the Ice Witch's skin, she couldn't help but think about what a weird sensation it all was. Alison had bitten many people before, but none like this! Not only was the Ice Witch's skin cold and hard like ice, which meant it was actually really hard to break into, but it even tasted a bit like snow, cold and flavorless.

Then, once Alison did finally manage to pierce Karin's flesh, a cold stream of water met her mouth instead of the familiar tang of blood. Of course Alison knew it was going to be a very cold experience, but the fact that it didn't even taste like blood was what made it feel so strange to her. And whatever liquid it was that ran through Karin's veins, it was so cold it was more of a slush than a liquid. Then Alison had to continue to crack though the rest of the skin surrounding the gem. That really did feel like trying to bite through a solid block of ice. In short, it was one of the strangest experiences of Alison's life. That was saying something.

"Ah! You horrible, disgusting little monster!" Karin snarled, clawing at Alison and trying to get her off. Alison ignored these attacks.

"Me? A monster? Never!" the vampire tried to say sarcastically, but since her fangs were still buried in Karin's chest, it was hard to enunciate.

But at last, Alison finally got her fangs all the way around that chunk of skin and managed to crack it off of the Ice Witch's body. And that was another weird thing. Normal skin cut and peeled, this skin actually cracked. Alison felt it break off in her mouth and when she snapped her head back to finish the job, she left a small hole in the Ice Witch's chest. It was just a black circle, edges jagged, that lay within that pale, smooth, white skin. It might've been comical had the situation at hand not been so dire. The moment the gem tore out of the Ice Witch's chest, she gave an infuriated growl and she prepared herself to grab the gem back from Alison. Sireen, however, issued another command before Karin could attack.

"Nå!" and Alison somehow knew that it meant "now" and that was all the signal the vampire needed before tossing the gem right over shoulder, not even bothering to turn around to face Sireen. She knew she had thrown it hard enough that Sireen would catch it. And she did. All the while, Alison never took her eyes off the Ice Witch, still silently daring her to attack. At the same time, Sampson had attempted to take his own battle stance, still shaking, but holding his peel like a battle axe as the harpies staggered towards him, in pain but trying to protect their queen.

"Foooool!" Thyella croaked. She slashed weakly at Sampson and, unsurprisingly, missed.

"We will kill you! Rip your skin off your bones and send you back to our realm in pieces!" Tyfona managed to get a bit closer to Sampson, but like Thyella, she still wasn't able to land her hit.

"Oh no you don't!" Sampson squeaked bravely as he tried to fend off both of the harpies all by himself. He swung his peel back and forth threateningly. The Ice Witch finally turned her attention to Sampson and she began to exhale her icy breath over him.

"I've had enough of these stupid games!" Karin hissed. "You will submit to me one way or another!" she insisted, then she blew.

"NO!" without even realizing what she was doing, Alison lunged for the Ice Witch again, only this time, she did aim to hurt. She sunk her teeth into the back of Karin's smooth, flawless neck and, just as with her chest, the skin chipped away into a black hole. Sampson yelped, whipping around and whimpering again, reverting back into trying to use his pitiful paddle as a shield. He would fight the harpies, but the witch was scary.

"RUN!" Alison tried to command him, but he only shook his head, swinging the paddle again and slapping Karin right in the face before she could try to freeze him again. The Ice Witch shook this blow off better than before, however, and gave one sharp twist of her body, throwing Alison into Sampson and sending them both crashing to the ground. Instead of killing them, however, she turned back to Sireen.

"Thyella. Tyfona. Dinner is served," the Ice Witch hissed to her bodyguards, waving a dismissive hand towards Alison and Sampson.

"Yes, your majesty! It will be our PLEASURE!" they shrilled obediently in reply before turning on Alison and Sampson with hungry smiles.

While the bird-women closed in on the cowering Alison and Sampson, Karin made her way over to Sireen.

"Give them to me," she said simply. She extended a hand. All around them, a white storm raged. It was not as fierce as before, Karin's loss of the blue gem weakening her power slightly, but it was still blinding and bitterly cold.

"I did not surrender to you back home. What makes you think I'll surrender now?!" Sireen snarled in reply, clutching both gems to her chest.

"Foolish girl," was Karin's only response. "You did not win the war back home either. What makes you think you'll win now?" but Sireen only clutched the gems even closer to her chest, growling threateningly at the other witch towering over her.

An amused expression ghosted across Karin's deathly calm and pale visage before she shrugged disdainfully.

"Very well then," she said, but instead of trying to use her breath to freeze Sireen, she instead went for something faster. She snapped her fingers and conjured up a blade made of solid ice. She thrust it forward, aiming to skewer Sireen right through the heart, but even this attack was too slow because, while Sampson and Alison had been distracting the Ice Witch earlier, Sireen had been muttering another chant and when Karin finally went to confront Sireen, Sireen had the spell already ready.

Sireen thrust both of the gems back towards Karin, but not to surrender them. Instead, as she moved them forward, they both began to glow as brightly as twin suns. Karin hissed in pain, covering her eyes and dropping her ice blade, but it did no good. The light from the two gems only got brighter and brighter. The two rays of light, one pink and one blue, began enveloping the Ice Witch and squeezing her tighter and tighter until she was totally gone. In one last flash of light, Karin had vanished.

When the light from those two mysterious gems finally dimmed down, only the moonlight remained to illuminate that part of the forest. The Ice Witch was not the only thing to vanish, however. Instead, all of her ice and snow vanished as well. The ground was totally dry and hard again. The air was warm. Not a single speck of frost remained anywhere. The harpies were the only thing left and they, weakened and terrified by the defeat and the fact that they had been left behind by their mistress, fled at once. And they fled without so much as a single caw or screech, fear clouding their minds and making escape the only thing that mattered to them at the moment. Alison and Sampson survived totally unscathed just because the harpies had been too afraid to do more than run, no Ice Witch to save them now. Slowly, then, the vampire got to her feet, helping Sampson up to his. Sireen approached them both with a relieved and grateful smile. The Ice Witch was gone.

"Did we do it? Did we kill her?" Alison was the first to speak. Not even the smallest of snowflakes was still in the air or on the ground.

"Alas, no, but we did send her back to my realm," Sireen promised, looking satisfied enough.

"And that's a good thing?" Alison was mystified. Hadn't this woman just finished explaining what a plague Karin was to her country?

"Not good, but better than leaving her here," Sireen clarified, understanding Alison's confusion. "She cannot be killed without finding a very special source of fire magic and that fire magic can only be properly wielded by the future nine that I was telling you about. For that, I think it better to send her back to my realm for the time being, where she can do no harm to this world, and wait until the nine can arrive," Sireen did sound remorseful, leaving her people to suffer again at the icy hands of Karin, but she had a point about it being best if they left Karin away from the mansion so that, whenever these future nine heroes would arrive, there would be a mansion left for them to save.

"But Alison, could you check and make sure the harpies have totally gone?" Sireen asked suddenly. "I know they will return eventually, but I want to know if, tonight, they will try to attack us again."

"Of course," Alison replied, then she darted off into the night after where the harpies had fled. While Alison was gone, Sireen turned to Sampson at once, a serious expression on her face. She hadn't just sent Alison to make sure they weren't being spied upon, she had sent Alison away in order to have a private and secret exchange between herself and Sampson.

Firstly, Sireen returned the pink gem to the cowardly man, tying it back around his neck. Then she slipped a small scroll into a pocket on the inside of the old shirt he wore. Lastly, she handed him what looked like a compass, something blue shining inside of it. She whispered instructions into his ear about what to do with the compass. Once she was done, she pulled away and thanked him with a smile and a kiss to the forehead and he giggled bashfully in reply. He really was so like a child!

"I think we are safe for tonight, Alison," Sireen called as she pulled away from Sampson. The vampire heard Sireen call to her and came running back. She still didn't look convinced, but Sireen managed to assuage her fears. "I think that this defeat will be crushing enough to them that they won't attack again tonight and, with any luck, will be too afraid to attack again unless they have someone more powerful behind them. It will happen eventually, especially since we will need to open up a portal to reach Karin again but, for now, I think the harpies are a neutralized threat. They'll be too scared to attack anyone on their own. At least for awhile."

"And you're sure about that?" Alison double-checked, still trying to hear the strains of the harpies' screeching.

"I am," Sireen promised. "And now, I think it's time you and Sampson returned to your mansion..." she added with a look at the large building.

"But what about you?" Alison asked.

"I will stay here. With him. Until the heroes arrive," Sireen answered with a small, sad smile, looking back at Torhil. His body had miraculously remained unscathed during the chaotic battle with Karin.

"Surely you could come inside at least once?" Alison continued to press, not wishing to lose one of her new allies just yet.

"I would rather not," Sireen continued to pull, not wishing to go into a place full of strangers she didn't trust and leave her closest friend behind. Besides, although she was no ice witch, she was still from an icy realm, so the idea of going into a warm mansion instead of remaining in the chilly woods was quite unappealing to her. She had set up home outside for a reason, besides keeping Torhil's frozen body company.

"Well, if you're sure then," Alison still sounded reluctant to go, but when Sireen only waved her on.

"You do have to escort Sampson back safely, after all, Alison. You cannot remain out here either," she reminded the vampire. Alison conceded to this. Though she would've been happy to spend the night outside with Sireen, Sireen had a point that Sampson was going to need someone to help him home safely, especially if the harpies were still around. Even if they weren't keen on another battle, they would still be likely to try and attack Sampson if he was entirely alone. This thought nestled in Alison's brain and her protector mode switched on at once.

"You're right," she told Sireen seriously. "I'll go back with him. I can keep him safe. I'll look after him."

"Good, thank you," Sireen sounded genuinely grateful as she smiled both at Alison and Sampson, affection in her dark eyes.

"It was an honor to fight by your side," the vampire told Sireen with a respectful curtsey.

"The honor was all mine, brave, warrior princess," Sireen replied. Not to be outdone, her curtsey was even deeper than Alison's had been. The two exchanged looks full of respect, admiration and a desire to work together again some time, then Alison turned a much gentler, sympathetic gaze to Sampson. She put an arm around his shoulder and when he met her eyes, still shaking a bit, she looked back over in the direction of the mansion.

"Shall I escort you back home?" she asked him and he nodded in relief, relaxing for the first time that night. His shoulders seemed so much lower now that they weren't all bunched up by his ears from fear. Sireen smiled at him fondly and watched him and Alison go back to the mansion. She didn't stop watching until she saw them shut the door behind themselves.

But while Sireen remained outdoors, going back to her private little house in the forest, Alison took Sampson right back to the kitchens.

"Ah, thank you milady, but this is where you can go!" he stuttered, voice still high-pitched and shaky. This time, it wasn't from fear, but rather, general nervousness. He wrung his hands. He felt bashful, standing in the presence of another one of his brave, selfless, sacrificial and caring protectors. He wasn't used to having positive female figures in his life, or any positive figure at all for that matter, so to find friends and guardians in both Sireen and Alison had been like a miracle to him. He was almost feeling overwhelmed by it all. No one had ever been so nice to him before!

"Actually, Sampson, before I go, I'd like to just ask you a few questions," the vampire replied and, all at once, Sampson's nervous smile became a nervous frown. "Oh, don't worry, I promise I won't pry, I'm just curious to know how you came to this mansion," Alison promised gently, seeing the way he had shrunk down under such an open remark of scrutiny.

"Oh! That! Well, y'see, miss princess, I came here with my boss and old mum, the Gingerbread Woman!" then the nervous man was off, speaking through stuttered sentence after stuttered sentence about his life...

He had spent his whole life in London's underbelly, living on the streets. It was a very scary, lonely, miserable existence, but there came a time in his early years that he got the wild idea to go to France, believing life might be better in the fancy and majestic streets of Paris than here in the dingy sewers of London. He managed to stow away on a cargo ship and reach France, but life wasn't much better there either. At least not until he met the Gingerbread Woman. (Her real name was Jaqueline, but she claimed that the name was "too serious" and instead preferred to go by her title of "the Gingerbread Woman". Her nickname, Jackie, was ok, she said, but it still wasn't as fun as her title).

She and Sampson crossed paths when Sampson had been staring longingly into her bakery, a hungry look in his eyes. Taking pity on such a poor, scrawny, ugly little boy, the Gingerbread Woman became his mother from that day on, having him help her run the bakery. But it wasn't nearly as nice a tale as it sounded, for as pretty and sweet as the Gingerbread Woman was, she could be terribly cruel and she had picked on Sampson all his life, mostly for being too slow, scared, stupid or scrawny to do what she'd asked properly, but with nowhere else to go, Sampson remained at her side well into adulthood, leading to today. He wasn't exactly happy with her, but he still had no other option, so...

He could not remember how long ago it had been since he had first set foot into this mansion, but he did know for a fact that it was after the arrival of Alison, but before the arrival of Sireen (who had arrived sooner, about a week ago). Alison just hadn't noticed Sampson or Sireen's arrivals since they had both come during a day hour, when Alison would've been asleep, and JPG would've been too busy to keep a lookout. Additionally, since Sireen was hidden in the outdoors and since Sampson and the Gingerbread Woman were always in the kitchen, that would explain how Alison never met them even after they'd moved into the mansion.

So Sampson had no clear date for his, or Sireen's, arrival to the mansion. He just remembered living in Germany at the time, the Gingerbread Woman having set up her latest bakery there. That was when the Sorceress came in. She had offered the Gingerbread Woman all the dough she could ever want (both in literal and monetary terms) in exchange for her cooking. The Gingerbread Woman, intrigued by some of the recipes in the Sorceress' cookbook that she had conjured out of thin air, had agreed. Sampson, himself, never got to see the recipe, but apparently it was a really good meat pie, and meat pies were the way to the Gingerbread Woman's heart, so she had sealed the deal with the Sorceress and, after dragging Sampson by the ear with her into the black carriage waiting for them outside, the two had been living in the mansion's kitchen ever since.

"Now, it's just like it always used to be!" Sampson shrilled nervously, twiddling his fingers as he spoke to Alison. "She and I bake all day and eat and sleep all night! Just like old times! Hehehehe!" but he sounded very nervous. It was partly because he was worried that the Gingerbread Woman would hear him and yell at him for either being up past his bedtime, bad-talking her, or talking to a stranger he'd just randomly let into the kitchen. But the other part of his fear stemmed from something that Sireen had told him...

"And how did you happen to meet Sireen?" Alison asked next.

"Well, she ran into me one day when I was disposing of some of the trash we'd accumulated from that day of baking the Gingerbread Woman's special meat pies!" Sampson explained. "She caught me struggling through the dark to throw the waste away and offered to help me. She was so very nice and friendly to me and she offered to help me with the trash for every night after if I would help her find that mean old Ice Witch bully and get rid of her, and so we did!" Sampson bounced a little on his feet, clearly feeling quite happy about the outcome of their little adventure.

Underneath that smile, however, Sampson was still hiding a secret. It was what Sireen had told him. What he failed to mention to Alison was that what really attracted Sireen's eye wasn't just his predicament, it was the pink gem he wore around his neck. She had come to him, telling him that it was a very precious gem indeed and that she needed to borrow it.

Of course, at first, he had been horrified by such an idea, the necklace having been a gift from the Gingerbread Woman. She'd given it to him when he was just entering into his teen years. Apparently, she'd nabbed it off of some kid whom she'd caught thieving from her store. She never did say what happened to that kid, but she decided to take the necklace as a bit of revenge, but then she gave it to Sampson not long after. So when Sireen was asking for Sampson to give the necklace to her, she was asking him to give away something that did still technically belong to the Gingerbread Woman and, as Sampson well knew, she did not take kindly to thieves. What's more, he didn't dare ever get rid of any gift the Gingerbread Woman gave him just because she would've, doubtless, seen this as a great offense. She had a knack for punishing him whenever he committed these crimes, so he tried not to ever commit them in the first place. In short, that necklace was his and his alone.

But that had been when Sireen had promised that she had no interest in keeping the gem, just borrowing it. And she even promised that he could wear it the whole time because she didn't really need to wear the necklace herself, she just needed to be able to have the gem nearby when she worked a magic spell. This had alarmed Sampson again, but when Sireen was able to prove she was a good and kind witch, unlike the crazy and creepy one that had brought him into this mansion in the first place, and once she promised to help him deal with the Gingerbread Woman and her abuse, he had agreed to let her use his necklace just this one time. That led to the whole event Alison had stumbled upon. In exchange for being around Sireen when she used his necklace for her spell, Sireen would try and pacify the Gingerbread Woman and divert her wrath from Sampson more often, should such incidences ever occur.

That had been why this night had been Alison's first time seeing Sireen. Sireen had, before this night, spent most of her time in hiding, but because she had finally conjured up that plan to steal the Ice Witch's main power source, the blue gem, she had forced herself out of hiding to go and find another gem to use, leading her to Sampson, leading her to make a deal to have him help her get rid of the Ice Witch in exchange for more protection against the Gingerbread Woman. Alison hadn't run into Sireen by chance, she'd accidently walked in on an ambush. She, in the end, however, proved to be a great asset to that ambush and Sireen had no doubt that the plan might not have gone as smoothly if it hadn't been for Alison's unexpected, unplanned arrival. But as useful and helpful as Alison had proven herself that night, because Alison was still not originally or technically part of the plan, Sireen had made Sampson promise not to tell her about the gems, hence their private exchange while Alison made sure the harpies were truly gone. Intent upon keeping that vow, Sampson never once mentioned any of this as he answered Alison's questions. So maybe Alison knew that the gems were magical. What she didn't know was that one of them belonged to Sampson and that the other had been hidden away in the little compass device Sireen had left him...

Alison, meanwhile, nodded slowly. It didn't even occur to her that there were some parts of his story he was intentionally leaving out due to his promise to Sireen. It saddened her to think that someone as sweet and innocent as Sampson was, in effect, stuck in an abusive relationship with his parent, but because she really could not do much to help him except keep him company, she forced herself not to show too much grief over the man's predicament. Instead, she tried to revert her thoughts back to the summary of his story, rather than the tragic details.

"Very well," she muttered at last. "I suppose that was all I wanted to ask you," then she straightened up, taking a step away from the nervous man. She tried to give him a reassuring smile, making sure to hide her fangs. She wasn't sure how well he would take it if he found out she was a vampire. Sure, he'd befriended Sireen, but Sireen was still technically human. She just knew a few spells. So, with a closed-mouth smile, Alison patted the baker fondly on his shoulder before excusing herself from the kitchen.

"Oh! And would you like a cupcake before you go? They were all freshly made today!" Sampson cried out before Alison could get too far away. Genuinely touched by the sincerity and earnestness in his voice, Alison had pretty much been forced to say yes, even though she did not eat human food. But of course she couldn't say no when Sampson looked so proud to be giving Alison something in exchange for the protection she'd given him during their battle with the Ice Witch, so Alison took the cupcake graciously.

"Thank you, Sampson, it looks wonderful," she promised. "And if you don't mind, I think I will eat it later. I'm kind of tired right now. Will that be alright?" she asked him politely, gently.

"Oh! Yes! Of course! Just as long as you like it!" Sampson nodded, grinning from ear to ear as Alison took the cupcake. He just looked so proud of himself that Alison could only nod.

"I'm sure I'll love it," she promised, then she took leave of the kitchen, Sampson eagerly waving her goodbye as she left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I have several things to talk about, so let's go:
> 
> Firstly, what do you guys think about the idea of Sampson and Sireen having been old friends? (I mostly say this because why else would he have had Sireen's scroll?) 
> 
> Secondly, going back to the Time Loop thing, I'm going to say it's 1955 now just because. I'm going to say that Sampson and the Gingerbread Woman were brought over around the end of WWII and Sireen came along about 10 years later. This is all non-canon btw. These years aren't accurate. I'm just trying to space things out.
> 
> Thirdly, since it was never explained how Sireen came to our world, but not the Ice Witch herself, it's my headcanon that she actually did, but Sireen defeated her, sent her back, stole the gem, and then put it into the compass that the YouTubers would find later (which Sampson is the one to hide, as per the instructions Sireen whispered to him after they defeated the Ice Witch). That's why they had to do that challenge, to cross over into the Ice Realm and defeat the Ice Witch that way.
> 
> Fourthly, names.
> 
> The Gingerbread Woman's name is just her actress' name (Jackie. I'm assuming it's short for Jacqueline). I know it's boring, but it beat the first name I tried to give her: Ginger. 
> 
> The Ice Witch's name is the Norwegian version of the actress' name (if we assume the Ice Realm is "Norway AU". "Torhil", after all, is a Norwegian name, so...)
> 
> And in that same vein, the Ice Realm's name "Isenhjelm" Google translates to "Ice Home" in Norwegian. I'm SO creative y'all! 
> 
> And the harpies have Greek names, since harpies are Greek spirits that personify violent winds. Fittingly, the names "Thyella" and "Tyfona" translate to "Storm" and "Hurricane". I know it's boring, but it beat the first names I tried to give them: "Ble" and "Portokali" which mean "Blue" and "Orange".
> 
> Speaking of the Harpies, even though they are Greek creatures, I'm still assuming they came from the Ice Realm just because I can't see why else the Sorceress would've had them living in the mansion. Besides, if we take Sireen's world as an "AU" of our world, it could be possible that we see Norwegian and Greek creatures living together (Karin and her harpy guards).
> 
> Anyway, let me know what you all think in the comments! I love my reviews and reviewers! 
> 
> (AquaEclipse, I've been responding to all your reviews. I'm not asking you to respond to my responses, but I'm just letting you know in case you haven't seen my answers to some of your questions yet. Thanks again for reviewing so much! I appreciate it so, so much!)


	11. The Lieutenants

"So what do you think she's planning?" JPG asked Alison as she finished the last of Sampson's cupcake. She had been a little more than surprised when Alison had come into her automaton lab bearing a cupcake, but she wasn't going to complain! JPG just hadn't even realized that the mansion had a bakery! Sure, she'd eaten the food that came from the normal kitchens, but it sounded like the place where the cupcake had come from was a special kitchen that only Sampson, or the Gingerbread Woman herself, could access. That made a bit of sense, though. The Gingerbread Woman wasn't the mansion's one and only cook, she was just the main proprietor of sweet stuff, and JPG supposed that she was highly protective of her recipes, hence why her kitchen was separate from the main one where JPG, Cedric and all the other humans of the estate got all their food.

"Who? The Sorceress or the Gingerbread Woman?" Alison replied, JPG's question rousing her from her thoughts.

"Both, honestly," JPG shrugged. "Think the Gingerbread Woman will give me more cupcakes if I ask?" she joked, but she did look quite forlorn as she tossed the now-empty cupcake wrapper away.

"I don't think I would go there," Alison replied seriously. "There's something not right about that woman..." the vampire shook her head darkly. She'd already told JPG about the incident with the Ice Witches last night, and then she told JPG about her run-in with Sampson in his kitchen, so JPG at least had a bit of understanding that the Gingerbread Woman wasn't exactly the warm and fluffy type, like the way her cupcakes were. But JPG still smacked her lips hungrily, regretful that the Gingerbread Woman wasn't more open about her kitchen. But, the young inventor supposed, the regular kitchen could produce pastries too, so it wasn't like there was a sugar shortage within the estate.

"You can't blame a girl for trying," JPG replied to Alison with a small smile and, despite herself, Alison chuckled in agreement.

"But that Sorceress, though," the vampire sobered up as she continued to think about the Gingerbread Woman and the Ice Witch, both of whom had been employed by the Sorceress over these past few... well, years, Alison was going to guess. But it could've been more or less than that. And since neither Sampson nor Sireen seemed to know what year it was, or what year it had been when they arrived to the mansion, who even knew?

JPG, however, pretended to put on a despairing face.

"Oh! No! Not the Sorceress again!" she pretended to swoon over her workbench. "Seriously, Alison, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were in love with that woman, all the thinking and talking you do about her!" the inventor joked. Alison knew JPG was only teasing, but the mere thought of being in a relationship with someone like the Sorceress was enough to make Alison hiss. She would rather be in a relationship with Vera! And that was saying something because Alison couldn't stand Vera! (But at least Vera was kind of pretty...)

"Absolutely not," the vampire muttered at last, JPG laughing heartily at her involuntary hiss at the idea of dating the Sorceress.

"I think it would be cute!" JPG replied, trying to egg the vampire on more, but Alison only rolled her eyes.

"It would be as bad as you and Cedric," she replied, and all at once, JPG's humored expression changed to one of abject horror.

"I'd rather be with one of those spider-women! At least they're hot in human form!" JPG cried, looking thoroughly repulsed at the idea of being with Cedric. Now it was Alison's turn to laugh heartily at JPG's expense will the young inventor pretended to puke.

At last, however, the joke ended and Alison returned to her original topic. The Sorceress.

"Just like always," JPG sighed under her breath, but she continued to listen to Alison's speculations. Although the inventor still had serious doubts that the Sorceress was any real threat or villain, she was at least starting to agree with the vampire that there was definitely something big going on here. The evidence was all too clear. Bringing in vampires, werewolves, spiders, armies and witches? Maybe the Gingerbread Woman seemed a bit out of place, all things considered, but perhaps the Sorceress just liked sweets? But who could blame her? The Gingerbread Woman was a killer cook! And although JPG really was trying to focus on Alison's talk, she found herself longing for another cupcake...

More time passed and while JPG did eventually get her wish of obtaining more cupcakes, thanks to Alison's friendship with Sampson, Alison, herself, was left unsatisfied. She continued to try and learn more about the Sorceress' plans, but the woman was way too secretive for Alison to be able to find anything more than tail ends, dead ends or clues to nothing. It was frustrating, a wild goose chase, but what could Alison do except keep trying? She didn't want to just wait around until another clue popped up!

Alison did attempt to make contact with Sireen again, but Sireen refused to show herself, insisting that the only solution to this puzzle would come with time. It hadn't been an answer that Alison had liked, but when enough years came and went without success, the vampire finally had to agree. She still wasn't admitting total defeat, but she did acknowledge that maybe Sireen had a point. Maybe, instead of wasting time and effort trying to solve this mystery alone, it would be more beneficial for her to help prepare the place for those nine heroes? If they really were going to be the ones to take on the Sorceress, they were going to need all the help they could get, and Alison wouldn't be able to be a good guide to them if she spent more time trying to track down the Sorceress than make things ready for the heroes.

Though, Alison's patience was somewhat rewarded in the time to follow (was it months, years, decades or even centuries?). There finally came a time when no more new inhabitants came to the mansion. Sure, black carriages still came in every month, but those were only the ones containing humans for the inhabitants to eat. Alison still hated knowing what those carriages contained, but even she wouldn't be reckless enough to defy the entire vampire court to save a carriage full of humans.

Much as she wanted to, she knew such open rebellion would likely land her in hot water either with the Sorceress or Dorian and neither of those people were good ones to anger. Not if Alison wanted to be around long enough to meet and help the nine heroes from the future. For that, Alison could only hope that they would arrive soon and that, when they did, Alison would know which group it was so that she could save them from Dorian's fangs. (Admittedly, Alison had tried to save a few guests before and, over the years, she did actually manage to get quite a few people out of harm's way, but the number of deaths far outweighed the number of lives and they never stopped being a burden on Alison's mind. She couldn't wait for Sireen's heroes to come and put an end to the monthly slaughter!)

But that was where at least one small good thing came out of all of it. With the black carriages only being used to transport human meat, that meant that there were no more new, dangerous inhabitants. At long last, Alison dared to believe, and maybe even hope, that the Ice Witches and Gingerbread Woman were the last of it and that there would be no more new employees to the Sorceress. It had been a long time now, after all, since the mansion last saw a real member come in through its doors, and even though there had often been long pauses between each visitor, from what Alison could tell, those gaps had never been as long as this one.

Something in Alison told her that the last visitor had arrived and even though she couldn't tell for sure, the longer the time stretched on without anyone else coming in, the surer Alison became. She may not have been able to mark exactly how long it had been since the Sorceress had sent someone to this mansion, but she was able to tell that it had been long enough that saying that the Sorceress was done bringing in more goons was now realistic. Alison took that time to make a list of all the mansion's inhabitants. Maybe the Sorceress was ready to start a Phase Two?

But before Alison even considered that as a possibility, she made a little mental list of who was already in the mansion. Of course, Alison knew that the number was insanely high, but most of that came from the menial labor. It came from the cooks, maids, cleaners, groundskeepers and servants. Alison wasn't counting them. She was counting the honored guests. The ones the Sorceress had come to personally, offering a deal to in exchange for some valuable service. These were the people that the Sorceress had finally decided upon titling as her lieutenants. From what Alison could tell, there were seven of them now living in the mansion.

Number one was Dorian, number two was Jorogumo, three was Cash, four was the Gingerbread Woman, five was the Ice Witch, six was Cedric and seven were the werewolves. And Alison knew for a fact that she had numbered them correctly because she did manage to eavesdrop on the Sorceress and one of her personal, private guards once and she found out that the Sorceress was not ranking the lieutenants based on order of arrival. Instead, there was another deeper pattern. Alison just had yet to crack it.

But, as if to make things more complicated, Alison once heard a rumor that there was also supposed to be an eighth lieutenant, though no one was able to give anymore information than that. There was no description of location or origin or appearance, just a whisper that seven was not the Sorceress' final number. To be honest, though, Alison didn't even know if this eighth lieutenant had been found yet at all, or if it was just someone voicing a future goal of the Sorceress' or if it had just been a hoax/joke/trick/rumor all along. All Alison knew was that there were currently seven, maybe eight, lieutenants in the mansion, each of them receiving a number not based on when they arrived here (if that had been so, Dorian would've been fourth lieutenant after Cash, the wolves and Cedric, not first), but upon something else that Alison just wasn't getting.

"Maybe it's based upon job status within the mansion?" JPG had suggested once. "I mean, your dad's a king and he's the top lieutenant. Cedric's a lowly clockwork builder and he's six and the only one below him are the wolves who, according to you, are mere groundskeepers, practically serfs!" the inventor smirked a little, levitating a foot off the ground. She was still refining her jetpack, trying to get it to float in one place without catching the ground beneath it on fire. It appeared that she'd finally found a good fuel source to allow such levitation to be possible.

"That's actually a really good theory," Alison allowed.

"But you're going to shoot it down anyway?" JPG snorted, coming back down. "And don't lie, I can hear that tone in your voice."

"Ok, I confess," Alison admitted apologetically. "But I just mean that if that were the case, I feel like the Ice Witch should've be higher up and the Gingerbread Woman lower down, so it's got to be some other pattern between them."

"True," JPG allowed. "Maybe it has to do with proximity to the heart of the mansion? Like, your dad lives right on the ground level and-"

"But then that leaves us the question of why Karin is five and Cedric is six since Cedric lives within the mansion itself," Alison cut JPG off.

"Oh. Right," JPG's shoulders slumped a little, but then they perked right back up again. "Oh well! Can't think of anything else!" she said. She really wasn't anywhere near as invested in this conspiracy theory as her vampire companion was, and it was showing. Instead, she went right back on tinkering with her jetpack! It really didn't need any touch ups anymore, but JPG was too fond of it to not work on it pretty much every day.

"Nor can I," Alison replied in frustration. "Nor can I."

"Well. The Sorceress hasn't even been here in a long time, has she?" JPG asked next. Although no one kept track of anyone else's coming and going, JPG had to admit that it felt like it had been an unusually long time since last she'd seen the Sorceress prowling around the mansion. "Maybe she is looking for that eighth lieutenant, or maybe she's building new mansions. Or do you think she got tired of us? Were we a collection she wanted to complete? Or just one of many other bases of operation?" JPG continued to speculate but Alison could only shake her head. It worried her, the idea that the Sorceress was, in fact, building other mansions, but how would any of them have any way of finding out? The only way to leave the mansion was if one had access to the black carriages and the only way to get access to those was to have the Sorceress around.

As the Sorceress had been absent from the mansion for quite awhile now, no one had been able to leave the estate. Even Alison was stuck inside now, her old hunts out into the real world coming to a stop. Now she was forced to join in Dorian's sickening hunting parties, though she flat-out refused to harm any of the guests. Instead, she only drank what the other vampires saved and bottled up after the main slaughter was long-over. It still made Alison sick to her stomach to drink the blood of innocents, but with her access to the black carriages gone, she had no other option for a viable food source. JPG would occasionally donate some of her own blood, but Alison tried not to indulge in that too much.

"Who can say?" Alison replied at last to JPG's theories about where the Sorceress had gone. Although all of them were reasonable, not a single one could actually be proven by any of them.

Alison had spent the past indefinite stretch of time trying to learn more about the Sorceress' motives, taking advantage of her mysteriously long absence to explore every nook and cranny of the mansion, but still nothing had revealed itself to her. That journal Sireen had mentioned was nowhere to be found, nor was Sireen herself. It was just Alison and JPG, and sometimes Sampson, but his boss was even stricter than JPG's. At least Cedric let Alison hang out with JPG. The Gingerbread Woman wouldn't even do that, punishing Sampson whenever he brought uninvited guests into the kitchen. They had all learned that the hard way when, one night, the Gingerbread Woman had caught Alison trying to sneak JPG into the kitchen to meet Sampson.

"And just what is going on here?!" the large woman boomed, flicking on the lights to the kitchen. Alison, Sampson and JPG all covered their eyes on reflex. "Sampson! Have you been bringing guests in here without my permission?! And past service hours?!" the woman sounded aghast, as though some great scandal had been revealed to her.

"What? No! Mum! No! Never!" Sampson tried to plead, but his legs were shaking so badly that his lie was brighter than the lights illuminating the large kitchen. The Gingerbread Woman, towering over JPG, Alison and Sampson all, put her meaty hands on her wide hips and scowled down in disgust and anger at all of them, tutting sharply.

"Now this will never do! I will have to punish you!" she insisted. She grabbed a nearby rolling pin and raised it over Sampson's head.

"NO!" for a second time, without even thinking, Alison lunged at Sampson's would-be attacker.

"Ah! Good gracious me!" the Gingerbread Woman exclaimed, dropping the rolling pin as she felt Alison grab onto her neck.

"Don't you dare hurt him!" Alison snarled. Maybe to some, it would be unfounded to ever harm a measly cook, but Alison did not care. This was no ordinary cook. This was also an abuser, and abuse was never, never, NEVER justified. Alison's rage nearly got the best of her and she felt her fangs extending out of her mouth, right over the Gingerbread Woman's flabby neck.

"NO!" it was only JPG's cry that saved the Gingerbread Woman that night. Hearing JPG call out to her, Alison came to her senses at once and quickly hopped off the Gingerbread Woman's back before the temptation to bite came back. She instantly bowed her head, but she did not apologize, nor did she plead forgiveness or innocence. Instead, although she addressed the Gingerbread Woman with respect and politeness, she spoke very, very curtly. This speech was not her way of apologizing to the crazed cook, it was her way of warning her.

"Although I do regret allowing my control to slip, I do not regret what caused it to do so," Alison began frostily, eyes cold and hard. "You threatened to bring physical harm to an innocent human for a small mistake that he has already apologized for. I see no reason for you to continue to press your charges against him, especially in such a physically brutal manner!"

"And what right do you have to tell me what to do in my own kitchen?" the Gingerbread Woman spat back. Although Alison's attack had surprised and scared her a little, it didn't take her very long to regain composure.

"I am the princess of the vampires, daughter of the king who runs this entire estate, put in place by the Sorceress herself! I have the highest right of all! What right do you have to be asking this of me?" Alison shot back, giving the Gingerbread Woman a villainous and fanged grin. She always loved when people would demand what right she had over them. The answer was always: quite a lot.

For a split second, the Gingerbread Woman looked scared, almost humbled, but once again, it didn't take her long to regain composure.

"Well then you, of all people, should understand the importance of discipline and keeping those beneath you in line!" she cried. "You of all people should support my desire to punish my unruly child!"

"There is a difference between punishment and abuse, ma'am," Alison crossed her arms, hissing a little.

"What does it matter to a vampire?" the Gingerbread Woman was growing annoyed now and she waved a dismissive hand at Alison.

Behind Alison, JPG finally opened her mouth to speak, outraged by the Gingerbread Woman's harsh remark about Alison's species. She had just been about to engage the Gingerbread Woman in a new argument to defend Alison's honor, but Alison raised a hand to stop her.

"A vampire though I may be," she began dangerously. "I do not harm my victims. And the ones who do suffer do so only to feed our kind. We kill to live, the same way a farmer slaughters his cattle for meat. I do what I must to survive, but what about you? Do you need to harm Sampson in order to survive?" Alison narrowed her eyes.

And that had been the first time Alison had ever told Sampson that she was a vampire. Although he had been afraid at first, JPG was able to calm him down and remind him what a good person Alison was at heart. What's more, JPG had reasoned, Alison had already proven her goodness and loyalty during the battle with Karin. And even tonight, Alison's sharp tongue and quick wit had managed to make even the great and mighty Gingerbread Woman submit. Although she hadn't wanted to, after hearing Alison threaten to tell her father about the Gingerbread Woman's transgressions over herself and her friends, the Gingerbread Woman had been forced to let the issue drop. Cruel as she was, even she wasn't dumb enough to challenge a vampire, let alone one who was also the princess of the estate. Instead, wanting to keep her job, and her life, the Gingerbread Woman skulked off, grumbling a surrender to Alison's demands in defeat.

The Gingerbread Woman had gone to bed after that, but in a last-ditch effort to retain some level of power and control over the situation, she made tried to threaten Sampson just one last time.

"If I ever catch you pulling a stunt like this again, I won't be so forgiving next time, you got it?" she demanded, trying to look as scary as possible. JPG and Alison were unfazed, but Sampson nodded hard enough that they thought his head would fall off.

"Yes mum!" he whimpered.

"Good!" the Gingerbread Woman glared at him, but behind him, Alison let out a very loud scoff, reminding the woman that she had no power here anymore. The Gingerbread Woman, knowing that her glares wouldn't work on Alison, proceeded to turn away from her and Sampson and JPG, exiting the kitchen and returning to her bedroom right next door, making sure to slam the door loudly, but Alison and JPG were still unfazed.

From that night on, Alison just made sure to be more careful when she visited Sampson.

"We aren't just going to stop visiting you!" she promised as soon as the Gingerbread Woman was gone. "How could we be so cruel as to?"

"Yeah! She did say if she ever caught us again she'd punish you, but she has to catch us first!" JPG agreed gleefully, and so Sampson was able to keep his newfound friends, which was a great relief to him. What's more, in time, Alison and JPG came to realize that the Gingerbread Woman discovering them on that first visit to Sampson had been nothing more than bad luck, a glitch in a spell...

"Don't worry!" Sampson had chirped one night after JPG had dropped a rather large pot to the ground. "Sireen kept her promise and put a spell over the Gingerbread Woman so that every time she goes to bed, as long as no sunlight touches her afterward, she remains asleep! Sometimes I leave her asleep for days at a time!" the man seemed very pleased with himself and even Alison had been forced to smile, glad that Sireen was keeping her promise to protect Sampson even though she had since gone back into hiding.

Alison was also relieved to hear that Sampson now had some small way of controlling his abuser. Turns out, that first night Alison and JPG came to visit, the spell hadn't been "fully on" so to speak, and that had been why the Gingerbread Woman had heard them creeping in. Her bedroom was right next to the kitchen, after all. But every night after that, the spell had held strong. That was why JPG could drop a large pan and Sampson wouldn't be troubled by it.

"She's fixed her spell up some!" Sampson continued to singsong. "So that close calls like the first time won't happen again!" that had been very good news to Alison and JPG.

"I'm still sorry I made such a mess," JPG laughed embarrassedly as she picked up the pot. There had been some jelly filling in it. JPG had knocked it over in her attempt to scrape some out of the bottom.

"Don't worry about that! It's just nice to have friends to talk to!" Sampson hummed in reply, cleaning up JPG's mess with a merry smile upon his face. He handed her another cupcake, which she was more than happy to wolf down on, despite feeling bad for making such a noise and such a mess. But hey! If Sampson was ok with it, then so was JPG! Alison could only roll her eyes, silently wondering how it was that JPG had yet to gain a single pound after all the sweets Sampson had loaded her with.

"My blood is going to be so sugary next time you feed!" JPG had whispered to Alison in delight as she devoured another little cake.

"Shhhh!" was Alison's only reply, but JPG only grinned cheekily before taking another giant bite into her latest pastry...

Meanwhile, in the bedroom attached to the kitchen, the Gingerbread Woman continued to snore, just as promised by Sireen's magic. Of course, Sampson never left her asleep for too long, knowing that even Sireen's spells had their limits and the Gingerbread Woman would always wake up again eventually, but he took advantage of Sireen's protection where he could and it made his lowly life just a bit better. He had also tried to use the Gingerbread Woman's now-heavy sleeping habits to help Alison and JPG in their own little quests, but he had yet to find anything regarding the lieutenants. He had no idea why the Gingerbread Woman was the fourth lieutenant, he just knew that she was. He also had no clue where the Sorceress had gone either, but he was certainly glad she wasn't in the mansion anymore.

"I don't care if she stays away forever!" he declared to Alison and JPG one night. "Even if I don't think she's that evil, she's definitely mean, and a lot like the Gingerbread Woman, so I don't mind if she never comes home!" and he seemed so passionate about his opinion that Alison didn't have the heart to remind him that if she ever failed to return, they might all be stuck in that mansion forever. Without her, there were no black carriages. Without the carriages, there was no escape. Alison had tried once before out of sheer curiosity and she had since found out that it was literally, physically impossible to walk out of the estate.

When Alison tried to just walk out, there came a point when she hit a wall of endless fog. She walked through the fog for hours and hours, but got nowhere. When she finally admitted defeat and turned around, it had only taken her minutes to see the edge of the estate once more... Alison had wondered if the mansion itself wasn't in some alternate dimension with the boundaries of the estate being the entirety of the dimension. It would explain why the carriages were needed to leave. Alison wouldn't put it past the Sorceress at this point.

Upon a later night, though, when Alison and JPG chose to hang out in the lab instead of with Sampson, JPG came up with another theory.

"Hmmm, well, maybe she's visiting other realms again and got stuck in one?" the inventor laughed at the idea. Although she was even less wary of the Sorceress than Alison or Sampson, she couldn't help but enjoy coming up with the funnier theories, like this one. It amused her to imagine the Sorceress stuck in her own spell, kind of like when Cedric got stuck in his own dress-pants invention that one time! That had been funny!

"Doubtful," Alison replied darkly. Although she knew JPG was trying to make a funny, she still treated that possibility as a real one and decided that it was incredibly unlikely. There was no way a woman with the power to jump dimensions would be careless or unskilled enough to find a way to hop back out of them after entering. Right? But maybe she was dimension-jumping. Perhaps she was looking for her eighth lieutenant? Maybe it would come from another different dimension, just like the Ice Witches? Or maybe she was trying to build other mansions in other worlds and she had left this one in Dorian's care while she went to build those other mansions? It would go with the theory that there was more than one mansion, each acting as its own little base of operation. Alison had already since begun to wonder whether or not this mansion itself wasn't in some new dimension that the Sorceress had created specifically with the intent upon keeping them all stuck inside.

"But whatever it is, she's obviously building an army to conquer the world," the vampire continued. All theories and interdimensional mumbo-jumbo aside, that much was clear. Even timid little Sampson had agreed with the vampire on that, especially after that night he helped Sireen vanquish Karin. Alison then cast a sideways glance at the work table of Cedric. At long last, he'd finished setting up all the security in and around the estate and had started working upon the second thing that the Sorceress had asked him to build: robotic soldiers. They were underway, their giant metal frames sitting slumped up against one another on his table. The blueprints lying in front of them called them the Promethean Men.

"Well what? You want us to try and stop her?" JPG asked, seeing the way Alison was eyeing her boss' creations with such distrust. Although JPG honestly couldn't blame Alison, the Prometheans were pretty vicious-looking after all, she still took some level of pride in them because she'd helped build them and seeing Alison look at them with such obvious distrust stung just a little. Besides, it's what the Sorceress had hired them for! What did Alison expect? That they were just going to blow off their paid assignment just because they thought she was creepy?

"No, no. Not yet at least," Alison replied, missing JPG's hurt face as she continued to inspect the robotic soldiers that were being built. "I think we should wait and see where this goes, see if it really is all that bad. I don't want to make any rash or hasty decisions. Besides, if we do act too quickly, we run the risk of ruining our chances to know how to stop all of this if it does reach that point," the vampire continued to reason. "Better to wait and see than rush in blindly and do something regrettable..." she tapped on one of the Promethean's giant metal feet. No doubt, the monster would be terrifying once it was complete. It already looked kind of creepy and it was only a metal endoskeleton right now!

"Well, whatever you say, boss," JPG muttered, still a bit hurt by Alison's assessment of the Prometheans. Alison continued to remain too focused upon her conspiracy theories to notice the way JPG was frowning at her, hovering protectively over the Promethean Men. They were her babies! It wasn't their fault they were supposed to look intimidating! They were security bots, after all!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: And here we are! The mansion's all set up just like we remember it to be! 
> 
> This was just a bit of a transition chapter where more mysteries, theories, characters and plotlines are introduced and the lieutenants are finally put in order. We know why they are ranked the way they are (the order of the gems in the Crown), but Alison doesn't. Not yet at least. Also, it looks like the Devourer, the eighth lieutenant, doesn't actually arrive into the mansion until Joey arrives into the story, so the Devourer will not be in this fic. He's still in the Dark Dimension. The Sorceress hasn't gotten him out yet. For that, there will only be seven lieutenants seen in this fic. 
> 
> And, yes, it's my theory that the Gingerbread Woman doesn't work in the main kitchen of the mansion. Why? Because it only produces sweets, and I can't imagine anyone eating only those for decades upon decades. Additionally, there's no way she's the only cook. Even if most of the mansion's inhabitants eat people, there's still got to be a few that require human food, right? Thirdly, one could argue a private kitchen makes it easier for her to do what she does (kill kids) than if she tried to do it in a normal kitchen that didn't have a conveniently human-sized oven, you know? But that's just a headcanon.
> 
> Also, even though the lieutenants, assistants and helpers are all in place, there's still one more big character I need to introduce to you all. Read on to see who it is...


	12. Change of Allegiance

But then, after one particularly disturbing discovery, JPG finally got on board with Alison's little pre-planned rebellion. After all that time, JPG finally began to see the evil that Alison had been theorizing about for the past indefinite stretch of time. For once, the inventor could no longer brush off Alison's petty little conspiracy theories as only that. Instead, she could only agree that not only was the Sorceress planning universal domination, but that she would get it too, and that she was a psychopath who would make a terrible leader once she managed to obtain such power! At long last, JPG went through a change of allegiance and decided, once and for all, that she was against the Sorceress.

Funny thing was, this change of allegiance happened on a very calm, gentle night. JPG and Alison had just been out, exploring the gardens, when the dark discovery was made.

"Hey! Alison! Check this out!" JPG was standing in a very, very tall tree, about to jump.

"If you fall, I'm not catching you," Alison deadpanned, looking up and crossing her arms. She did not fear for JPG's safety, knowing exactly what JPG was about to do. She was going to leap off, but activate her jetpacks at the last second and then go flying back up into the sky.

"I won't need you to catch me!" JPG replied proudly, then just as Alison had suspected, JPG jumped. Right off of the tree, she jumped.

Inches before she hit the ground, however, she switched on her jetpacks. Red and golden flames shot from the bottom of the jetpack and suddenly, JPG was airborne again, sailing through the night sky like a shooting star. A very large, very loud shooting star.

"Woo hoo!" she cheered as she arched across the sky. Alison, still stuck on the ground below, chuckled and rolled her eyes fondly.

"You reckless creature, you!" Alison whispered up at JPG's darkened outline.

For a few minutes more, JPG continued to fly circles around Alison, teasing her.

"Betcha wish you could fly too, huh? You jealous yet, Alison? Jealous that there's finally something a human can do that you can't?"

"Of course not," Alison shrugged, not even bothering to try and focus in on JPG because of how fast she was flying. "This isn't the first time a human has proven capable of doing something I cannot."

"Really? What other humans have you met that can fly?" JPG was genuinely interested.

"I wasn't referring to the power of flight," Alison replied. "I was referring to all the other skills that humans seem to possess, particularly you, that I, myself, cannot fathom. The first and foremost of those traits is unimaginable stupidity."

What followed was Alison teasing JPG on all the dumb and dangerous things she'd done in her life before talking about all the hilarious and embarrassing mess-ups the young inventor had endured as well.

"You're impatient, ignorant, foolish, stupid and hotheaded," Alison counted on her fingers. "Trust me, there are a lot of things you can do that I can't, like being crazy enough to jump off a tree, jetpack or no jetpack. I'm not jealous at all."

"Jerkface," JPG replied with a pout, but Alison only shrugged innocently. "Alright then, princess, let's see if you're so tough!" the inventor muttered, but before Alison could ask what that was supposed to mean, JPG had grabbed her by the armpits and lifted her straight off the ground.

"Whoa!" despite herself, Alison cried out when she could no longer feel the ground beneath her feet.

"I added in some extra thrusters so I can carry someone else with me!" JPG shouted over the wind as she flew Alison higher and higher up. Alison lacked the voice to respond, a mix of fear and exhiliartion rising up in her chest as JPG soared her over the mansion. It was a beautiful view and a great sensation to fly, but being carried around by her armpits kind of hurt and JPG already admitted that she wasn't strong enough to carry Alison bridal style. It probably would've been better if JPG had let Alison use the jetpacks so that way Alison could carry JPG, but JPG was so possessive of her jetpacks that not even Alison was allowed to wear them, so the flight continued the way it began, with Alison being carried by the armpits by JPG as they soared across the starry sky...

At last, towards one area of the mansion's grounds that Alison didn't often visit, JPG spotted something in the far distance.

"Hey! Is that a house with a light on?" she asked, speaking louder than normal to be heard over to wind. Alison didn't respond at first, only narrowing her eyes to see. Yes! It was! There in the distance, high over the treetops, was what appeared to be a little house, and there was a candle flickering from within the house. Alison could see the light leaking out of the house and into the darkness surrounding it. It wasn't a very bright light, but it was enough for both her and JPG to see.

"Shall we explore?" JPG asked after Alison had confirmed to JPG that she wasn't hallucinating.

"Might as well," Alison replied, her own curiosity peaking as she and JPG continued to fly on. At last, they landed right within the doorframe. What met their eyes was the last thing they'd ever expected to see. It was a girl. She had gold hair, brown eyes, pale skin, and she wore a white dress. What really caught Alison and JPG's attention, however, was not the way the girl looked. Nor was it the fact that she was here in this little treehouse. It was the fact that she was trapped in what appeared to be a glass box. The moment she saw Alison and JPG land in the doorway of the tree house, she began to pound wildly on the glass holding her in place. The message was clear. She wanted out.

"Holy sweet nuts and bolts!" JPG muttered as she brushed past Alison to inspect the glass box. It was totally flawless and seamless, like one giant, solid cube of glass instead of six rectangular panels all attached together at the edges. The girl inside was still crying, still banging frantically on the glass walls of her tomb.

"What is this?" Alison demanded softly, joining JPG at her side. So many emotions were in Alison's voice that even she couldn't tell what she was feeling right now. All she knew was that something was very wrong here.

"What is this?" she repeated. "Who is this? And how and why did it happen?!" now she was starting to sound angry, but when the girl met her eyes, Alison saw so much misery, fear and hurt that her own anger changed to pure sympathy and protectiveness.

Alison's scowl of anger and disbelief morphed into a frown of gentleness and concern at once. She raised her hands and tried to get the girl in the box to look at her again. She mouthed for the girl to calm down.

"Shhh, shhhh, shhhhh, it's ok, it's ok!" she murmured, stepping closer to the glass and trying to keep the girl's eyes focused on her.

"No it's not!" the girl replied, lashing out and striking the glass as though she were striking Alison, but although the sudden coherent sentence startled JPG, Alison didn't even flinch. Instead, she continued to approach the box, hands up, still crooning to the girl stuck on the other side. In the back of her mind, while she continued to soothe this imprisoned girl, Alison couldn't help but remember the very first time she met JPG so long ago when JPG had called her "caring". Back then, Alison would've scorned and scoffed at such an idea. But now?

"Hey, hey, hey. It's ok, it's ok," Alison continued to speak softer and softer until the girl in the box followed her lead and fell silent as well. It was clear she was still very angry and afraid, but she was no longer pounding wildly against the glass. Once Alison fell totally silent, however, the girl began to speak.

"Who are you?" she demanded. Her voice was sharp and angry, but it sounded wet, full of unshed tears. Because of that, the anger in her voice was overpowered by her fear and misery. Alison's heart went out to her.

"My name is Alison," she said gently. "And this is my friend, JPG," Alison pointed to JPG, who still could only stare. Brought back to life by Alison's acknowledgement, however, JPG managed to wave and give an odd half-smile. It was in JPG's nature to be a friendly greeter, but now didn't seem like the best time to be all smiles and laughter.

"I'm Riley," the girl in the box replied. "And I want to get out of here."

Before Riley could start having another meltdown, Alison quickly began to ask her how she'd even gotten stuck in a glass box at all.

"Do you have any memory of how you got here?" Alison asked calmly as she began to tap and scratch the glass, looking for some kind of opening or weak spot within the panes. JPG copied her and both of them circled Riley, looking for some weak spot where they could break the glass.

"No. None at all," Riley sniffled as Alison and JPG circled her box. "I have no idea at all. I just remember suddenly appearing here, right on these very grounds, in this very box. And the Sorceress! She was there too. She did this to me," Riley finally began to cry, tears streaming swiftly down her thin cheeks. "She did this to me. She's the one that trapped me here, in this box, in this tree house. She hurt me! She hurt me!"

"The Sorceress," both JPG and Alison recoiled in unison, hissing as Riley sniffled. Riley managed to give a weak nod, still weeping.

"So that proves it, then?" Alison demanded of JPG at once. "The Sorceress is a monster and she is up to no good and she must be stopped!"

"Right!" JPG agreed, with a similarly fierce and determined expression. All of her past respect and indifference to the Sorceress had, in just one instant, changed. She just undergone a change of allegiance and what was once an apathy had just turned into a burning rage and a desire to kill. In one second, JPG became just as anti-Sorceress as Alison had always been, but unlike Alison, she wanted to take a more direct approach. Now she wanted to do something about it! She wanted to fight! And attack!

"But how exactly are we supposed to do that now?" JPG asked, her rage vanishing the moment she realized she had no clue how to fight the Sorceress. She inwardly cursed herself for not believing Alison sooner.

"I don't know!" Alison admitted in anger. "But we can't just let a Sorceress like that live freely. Not if this is what she does to innocent humans!" the vampire cast a glare at Riley, but the anger was not directed at Riley. Instead, it was angered at the one responsible for Riley's suffering.

Alison shook her head, the last two words of her declaration left a sour taste in her mouth. Whatever this woman really was, it was worse than any vampire Alison had ever known. Even aggressive Morgan, or sadistic Calvin, or violent Vera, or her own selfish and disdainful parents had never been this terrible. While a vampire might've tormented their victims and relished it, they never did it needlessly or mindlessly. Their violence against humans only happened at mealtimes, which only happed because even vampires needed food to survive.

Additionally, a vampire never enslaved or entrapped a human. The closest it ever came to that was any time a vampire tried to keep a human alive in order to create a lasting food source, but these living blood bags, these Warm Ones, still never lasted maybe a year at most. It was physically impossible to keep a human enslaved as a feed-bag for a year and expect the human not to die of disease, weakness, or outright despair. But even a year was pushing it because, normally, Alison would catch when one of the vampires tried to keep a Warm One and she would make sure to kill the human herself. This was not out of cruelty, of course, but it was a mercy kill.

But this Riley girl, she was no Warm One, it seemed. The glass box in which she was trapped had no discernable openings for feeding to occur. And Riley had even said that after the Sorceress placed her here, she'd received no contact from the outside world whatsoever. This meant no one was using her as a Warm One at all. She had no master that would come to her every few days to drink. It was literally just her, stuck in a box day in and day out, no one else to talk to. What's more, given what she'd said about being here because of the Sorceress, Alison could guess that this girl had been a slave for at least several years, if not several centuries. No Warm One ever lasted so long.

Putting all this together, Alison was pretty sure Riley was not a Warm One. But if that were the case, what was she? If she had no visits, not even from the Sorceress, it meant she was of no use to anyone. If that was so, then why was she being kept alive and imprisoned? To Alison, there was nothing more sick or sadistic than this: a senseless but brutal punishment that seemed to serve no purpose, even to the one responsible for it. What pleasure or use was the Sorceress deriving from Riley's pain? If the answer was none, why was Riley here? This kind of torture was worse than anything Alison had ever seen from the vampire court. And it was all the Sorceress' fault. She had done this. To an innocent girl. Locking her away alive and leaving her to rot, forgotten, for all time. And why? For no apparent reason at all!

Alison shook her head again. This made Dorian look like a saint! Alison had never wanted to kill anyone so badly before...

"Alright, alright, alright, first things first," JPG muttered at last. She seemed to be taking to herself Alison and Riley all at once. "First off, we need to get this girl out of here!" she declared. Perhaps this seemed like an unnecessary thing to verbalize but, for some reason, hearing it sound aloud gave all three of them a new focus.

"Ok, yeah, let's do it," Alison agreed, coming back to the present, thoughts of her fellow vampires fleeing from her mind again. JPG, encouraged by Alison's remark, nodded in reply before drawing back closed fist... She took several hard punches and scratches at the glass and... succeeded only in almost breaking a few knuckles and tearing a couple nails.

"Nice going," Alison deadpanned. Despite the intensity of the situation, she couldn't help but roll her eyes at JPG.

"Let's see you do better!" JPG frowned, nursing her aching hand.

"Why not just go back to the lab and see if there's not just some glass-cutter or fancy, high-tech tool that we can use, hmm?" the vampire replied.

"Oh. That'll work too, I guess," JPG suddenly grinned sheepishly, then she obliged. She activated her jetpack and went soaring away, only this time, she had a goal in mind: her lab. Meanwhile, Alison stayed behind to keep Riley company.

About 30 minutes later, JPG was back. In her arms was a bag nearly as large as she was.

"Did you bring the whole lab?" Alison demanded as JPG made a rather awkward landing inside the treehouse.

"All 58,231,956 tools!" JPG replied proudly. Alison didn't even bother asking how JPG had that number memorized. Instead, she only helped the girl lower the giant bag to the ground and pick out the first tool.

"Alright, let's start simple!" the inventor declared, picking up a good old-fashioned hammer. Alison couldn't help but smile in amusement while even Riley looked hopeful, stepping back as JPG waved the hammer at the glass.

JPG smiled confidently at Riley as she stepped closer and her smile was reflected upon Riley's face. Even though Riley's eyes were red and puffy, she still managed to smile. When JPG saw that smile, she felt her face grow warm and red. She was blushing! And she was pretty sure she had never blushed this hard in her life. She hadn't even burned this bright when Alison had complimented her on her interesting stories way back when they had only just met. JPG nearly dropped her tool, too, because her hands had begun to shake the longer she stared into Riley's face. It didn't help that Riley wouldn't stop staring back, beautiful brown eyes staring intently at her. It was only when Alison impatiently cleared her throat that JPG managed to focus long enough to get back to work. She tried not to stare at Riley anymore, lest she go mushy in the head again.

Three hours and 58,231,956 tools later, JPG had obtained exactly zero results. Every single tool of hers was now broken and Riley was no closer to being free than when they had started three hours ago. The glass hadn't broken or chipped or cracked or dented or even scratched! It was still as flat, smooth and flawless as ever. There wasn't even the tiniest indication that JPG had gone through a whole lab of tools trying to crack it.

Suffice to say, morale wasn't exactly the greatest either. While JPG looked utterly crushed and humiliated, this being the first time any of her tools had ever let her down, Alison was in a tranquil fury. On the outside, she showed no emotion at all. On the inside, she was screaming in anger and she could feel phantom tears spilling down her face. She clenched her fists and teeth just to keep from having a blackout while JPG stared unseeingly at the glass separating her from Riley. Riley, herself, was a mess, having long-since curled up on the ground in her little box, going into fetal position as she wept over the hopelessness of it all.

"Oh! It's no use! She'll never let me out! She'll never let me go! And I shall spend an eternity here!" Riley continued to scream and cry in her little ball and even JPG began to collapse under the weight of such a complete and utter failure. She'd even tried to melt the glass using her jetpack. Suffice to say, it hadn't done a thing except nearly fling JPG right out of the treehouse. Now the inventor was kneeling before the glass the way mourners would kneel before headstones. She was crying too. She was a lot quieter, but Alison could hear her soft whimpers acting as a twisted harmony to Riley's wounded sobs of pure anguish. Alison, herself, remained a mask of indifference and control. She let no emotions show as she stood guard over JPG and Riley, staring hard out into the night in case anyone decided to come exploring. Some of JPG's tools had been a little loud and Alison wouldn't put it past the Sorceress to send guards out soon. But despite how unmoved she looked, underneath, she felt her heart crying right alongside JPG and Riley.

At last, however, the sun began to peek over the horizon. Alison turned back to the grieving girls who were still sobbing softly, hands now touching through the glass as JPG tried to give comfort while Riley tried to receive it. It was a heartbreaking sight and Alison knew she was about to make it far worse, but they couldn't risk anymore time here, lest they be spotted.

"Come on, JPG, we have to go," Alison murmured at last, reaching out to her friend on the outside of the glass.

"What? No! We can't just leave her here!" JPG sounded as though she had been asked to remain in that box instead.

"We won't," Alison replied calmly, hand still extended towards the girl on her knees. "At least not forever. But we can't stay here any longer!"

"How can I just leave as long as I know she's going through all of this?!" JPG hissed at the vampire, gesturing to Riley.

"Then think of it this way," Alison replied, still calm and patience. "What if the Sorceress or one of her zealots are coming? What will they do if they see us here? Or see us leaving? If we don't go now, before the sun rises, they'll see us and they will catch us!"

"I don't care," JPG turned back to the glass and the girl behind it stubbornly.

"But what use will we be to Riley if we, ourselves, are killed?" Alison refused to lose her temper, speaking with endless patience to her friend. JPG was the only one who could be this rude to Alison and never stir her temper even a little because, although Alison did not brook any disrespect from anyone else, JPG had something of a free pass just because of how long she and Alison had been friends.

"She's right," Riley finally croaked, voice weak and sore from all the crying. "Your friend, there, is right. You can't stay here anymore. So just go, please. But promise me you'll come back again someday? And that you won't forget about me?" she did not uncurl herself from the fetal position she was resting in, but she did peep one sad, lost eye out at JPG and Alison both and despite all the pain that glimmered within that eye, they could also see love and gratitude. They might have failed to save her, but she was just so thankful that they had found her and then risked their necks trying to help her that she could not be mad at them. Now she wanted them to go before they were punished for trying to help her. Maybe the Sorceress never visited, but Riley still knew that the Sorceress was always watching. She didn't want Alison and JPG to risk themselves any longer.

"Please," Riley continued to beg softly. "Go. And go now. Hurry!" then she shut her eye again, burying her head deeper within her curled up body, signifying that she would say no more to them for that night.

"Ok, Riley, ok," JPG murmured at last, slowly but surely getting to her feet. "But we'll come back for you, ok? We'll always come back for you..." then, with great reluctance, she took Alison's still-extended hand and allowed the vampire princess to lead her away from the girl behind the glass.

Alison and JPG made good on their word to Riley. Although they never managed to find a way to even mark the glass Riley was trapped behind, they visited her as often as they could, trying their best to keep her happy, healthy, sane and stimulated, despite her Hellish circumstances. They actually did pretty well for a rebellious vampire and an awkward little bot-builder, all things consider. They succeeded in keeping Riley in good spirits with jokes, stories, pictures and little robots (these being from JPG, of course). As strange as the situation was and as impossible as the odds seemed, Alison, JPG and Riley all managed to forge a very deep friendship with one another.

Now, neither of the two were ever able to interact with Riley on a physical level, she could never hold any of the marvelous gifts they gave her, but the thought alone kept her alive and well. Their interaction with her was more than enough. She still was absolutely miserable, suffering alternating bouts of panic attacks and depressive slumps due to her incarceration, but Alison and JPG both had managed to give her the most priceless, timeless gift of friendship. For that, Riley was forever grateful. She did not just stay sane for her own sake, but for Alison and JPG's, too. She felt far too attached to them to allow her sense of goodness to slip away into madness. Trying as the days were for Riley, with her newfound friends, it became easier to bear the curse and she made it her new goal to remain as kind and gentle as she could, for Alison and JPG.

The days were long and lonely, nothing but the wooden walls of the tree house to look at, but during the night, the magic began. Alison and JPG never failed to visit, even if they couldn't both be present upon the same night. But in any way that they came, they filled Riley's nights with joy and wonder, giving her the life she'd never had but always wanted. Whenever Alison and JPG were around, Riley felt normal, even if it was only for a few hours before the cursed sun would peek up past the horizon again.

"And this one's name is Bobby Bo!" JPG exclaimed, waving another scrap metal creation in front of Riley's window.

"He's very cute," she giggled shyly. It was a little metal man with a comically large, long top hat. Riley seemed to genuinely like it despite its goofy looks and JPG looked like she was about to faint from receiving such a compliment. Alison, meanwhile, bit her lip to keep from laughing or teasing JPG about her less-than-subtle infatuation with Riley. Instead, she only humored the two blonds and picked up her own little robot (Sally Sue) and engaged in playing dolls. It was something Alison had not done since her childhood as a human and although it was almost embarrassing for her to play with dolls, the looks on JPG and Riley's faces were so worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Yes, I'm even adding Riley into the mix, though I know this really messes up the canon. But in this story, the treehouse itself is not locked, it's just the box holding Riley. The Leviathan Seals don't prevent you from getting into the treehouse, they prevent you from getting into the box. I know that's stretching it, but for the sake of throwing her into this fic too, it had to be done. (Riley/JPG, mkay?!)


	13. Final Piece of the Puzzle

As the time continued to roll on, though, neither Alison nor JPG nor any of their other allies were able to make any progress against the Sorceress. Or at least, they were unable to make any direct progress, but all their hard work was not in vain. Instead, they continued to work together in secrecy to try and unravel as many of the Sorceress' plots now as they could so that when the nine heroes finally arrived, most of the work would already be done.

Sireen continued to guard the grounds and search for secrets outdoors and she used some of her magic to help the others hide easier. Sampson acted as a link between her and all those inside the mansion. And the kitchen itself became a favorite place for meetings because, for some reason, the large oven in the Gingerbread Woman's kitchen led outside. No one was quite sure what this design was for, except maybe for airing out the oven after a meat pie was done baking, but it did make for a very quick, easy meeting place, especially now that the Gingerbread Woman was such a heavy sleeper. Alison continued to eavesdrop on her father and everyone else in the estate in case someone revealed that they knew info on the Sorceress. JPG, meanwhile, built all kinds of little machines to help them spy and keep in contact safely.

The only person in this secret alliance unable to do much was Riley, but this was hardly her fault. And Alison and JPG had since agreed to keep her secret from everyone else in the mansion, including Sireen and Sampson. Part of the reason they kept Riley secret was because they were trying to protect Sireen and Sampson. In case the Sorceress ever came to learn that Alison and JPG were friends with Riley, only they would be punished for it. What's more, Riley had personally requested confidentiality. It was for the same reason JPG and Alison never told Sireen or Sampson: safety. But even though Riley was unable to directly contribute, she kept Alison and JPG motivated and they, in return, kept Sireen and Sampson motivated. So every single person in that secret alliance was needed somewhere, and all of them played their parts as best they could.

Admittedly, though, it was hard to play such a big role with so little help. Every single member of this little alliance had, at least once, expressed desire in finding new members. Sadly, it didn't seem like anyone else in the mansion was trustworthy enough. The vampires were definitely out and neither JPG nor Sampson would ever trust their bosses and neither Sireen nor Riley had anyone else to vouch for. That left a bunch of servants, some morally gray spider-women, the werewolves (which received a hard 'no' from Alison) and the two armies, though Alison also gave a 'no' to that. Like the spider-women, both of them were very morally gray. Alison was sure she'd never trust Cash as far as she could throw him and even Arlyn, of the Dark Army, didn't seem like someone she wanted to trust with a Sorceress rebellion. Honorable as he was, from what Alison understood, he was on the Sorceress' side of the fight. Alison wasn't going to try and recruit him. (Sireen backed Alison up on this choice, having met both armies serval times due to the fact that all of them lived outside. Sireen didn't like either army anymore than Alison did, finding Cash to be hideously aggressive and Arlyn to be far too shady, literally and figuratively, to make a trustworthy friend).

At most, the little secret alliance received help from some of Sireen's fairy friends, or some of the gentler, friendlier magical beings that lived in the mansion, but even they had their limits. They weren't really helping Alison or her alliance because they believed that it was for the greater good, they only helped because the help was requested of them. If anything, they were more of a neutral party and, as helpful as that was, Alison still preferred to keep the bigger secrets within a circle that seriously wanted the Sorceress gone as opposed to a group who was more neutral about her. She wasn't willing to risk any slip in confidentiality just because they wanted a few extra hands. So the group remained tiny, but their motivations were strong and the occasional help from the neutral parties was just fine as it was.

But then at last, Alison was granted another piece of the mansion's crazy puzzle. This time, it came from Riley, and according to her, it was the final piece of the puzzle, though for some reason, she wasn't willing to talk about it when JPG was around...

"And then King TomTom said to Queen Lucie-lot, 'I think you're pretty... but the duke is twice as much so!'" JPG exclaimed, finishing a mini play in which some of her scrap metal animals had been involved in a parodied and dramatized love triangle of epic proportion. It was a very scandalous love story indeed, though the fact that scrap animals were the characters made it more of a comedy than anything. But the stories were real! They were inspired off of some of the tales Alison had told JPG about the vampire court and Alison caught onto this and watched JPG's play unfold.

This particular play was based off an incident that had occurred way back when Alison was still relatively new to vampire life. She could remember one male vampire rejecting Vera for another male vampire, so Vera had retaliated by taking her rejector's sister as a lover instead. It had been very scandalous at the time, but Dorian let it slide just because trying to right the wrongs would've done more harm than good in the long run. It was funny for Alison to watch the event being played out using scrap metal animals (though of course, the names had been changed. No vampire would've kept a name like TomTom or Lucie-lot).

"That was very good!" Riley clapped politely at the end of the play, laughing a little. The laughter was a beautiful sound that made both of her visitors smile, but one more so than the other. In fact, she was grinning so hard that her companion had to warn her.

"Smile any harder and your face is going to break!" Alison whispered to JPG as she packed away the little scrap animals.

"She's worth it!" JPG replied dreamily and Alison never let the young inventor live that down.

But then, right before that particular visit came to a close, while JPG was packing up her little toys and trinkets, Riley gestured for Alison.

"Yes Riley?" Alison asked, smiling gently at her friend, but Riley shushed her quickly before pantomiming a message.

"Come back later, alone, I have something I need to tell you," and Alison, at once, put on an entirely blank expression before nodding back a silent agreement. The purpose of her putting on the blank expression had been her way of communicating that she understood that Riley was swearing her to secrecy, and not even JPG was supposed to know what was happening. Alison understood all too well the intricacy of secrecy and had no issue in swearing her silence, even hiding her emotions away again to prove it. Riley gave her a weak smile before nodding, bidding her to go now with JPG. She knew Alison would keep her word and be back soon enough...

An hour and a half later, Alison was back, standing expressionless and motionless in front of Riley. JPG was in bed, ignorant to all of this.

"Ok, Riley, what did you want to tell me?" Alison asked at once. Riley suddenly looked uncertain and ashamed, reluctant to confess.

"Promise me you'll never tell JPG and that you won't hate me for it?" the girl pleaded, a truly wounded look in her eye.

"I promise," Alison replied seriously.

"Swear it!" Riley replied, vehement.

"I swear it," Alison replied. "On my sacred and royal honor as a vampire princess," she even raised her right hand and extended her fangs. This was customary when making solemn oaths or deals in the vampire world. This was because the gesture was symbolic of someone promising not only upon their vampire selves (the extended fangs) but also upon their past, human selves (the raised right hand). It was supposed to show seriousness, both identities swearing the oath together. But Riley didn't see it that way...

"That's not good enough!" she challenged, narrowing her eyes and becoming just as serious as Alison, if not more so. "Your word as a vampire princess means nothing because you hold that title in contempt!" and Alison, despite feeling a sting of indignation at Riley's accusation, couldn't help but agree. She nodded, lowering her hand and retracting her fangs.

"Very well," she said. "Then I swear upon my loyalty to you and JPG and all of our other allies against the Sorceress. I will never tell anyone what you will tell now," she amended her vow. She made no gesture this time, but Riley finally seemed satisfied.

"Good. Your word is good," she whispered. "Being the protector you are, I know you'd rather die than betray the people you love and the cause you fight for..." as Riley spoke these words, Alison nodded her confirmation, eyes hardening even more, as though silently challenging the world itself to try and make her break that oath.

"The loyalty of a vampire is deep and deep-seeded," Alison said, thinking back to the night she first met JPG, when she had been thinking about her own loyalty to her father despite how little they cared for each other. "And once it is given, it is very hard to retract."

"And what would Dorian say about that?" Riley asked gently, the barest of smirks on her pale face. She had heard, from JPG, about how Alison would talk about wanting to overthrow him.

"I didn't give him my loyalty," Alison replied calmly. "He took it from me the night he turned me. But think, if a vampire's loyalty is so strong when it is forcibly taken, such as is my case with Dorian, how much stronger, then, is the loyalty of a vampire when it is freely given?" Alison tilted her head, eyes sparkling passionately as she thought about JPG, Riley, all of their other allies and the cause they were fighting for.

"Well-spoken," Riley almost seemed to congratulate Alison like she'd passed a test, but then all that ancient wisdom seemed to sap out of the frightened young girl and that was all that remained: a frightened young girl.

"I will tell you now," she muttered, having to force herself to speak each and every word individually. "I will tell you now that which I didn't tell JPG earlier, and what you cannot ever tell her either... Are you ready for the final piece of the puzzle?" Riley paused, looking terrified.

"I am," Alison was totally calm, voice steady as she spoke those two simple words. Riley took a deep breath before confessing.

"I am the Sorceress..." For a moment, there was only silence, Riley hanging her head in shame while Alison tried to understand what Riley said.

"You are the Sorceress," Alison said at last, repeating it slowly. Her voice was totally flat and expressionless. It gave Riley no clue as to how Alison was taking the news.

"I am," the girl tried her hardest to match Alison's calm, level tone.

"What does this mean?" the vampire asked. Even when asking a question, Alison's tone remained totally unreadable. This perfect level of emotionlessness terrified Riley because she really wanted to know how Alison was taking this confession, but Alison was so good at keeping her emotions hidden that Riley didn't know at all what was going on in the vampire's head. Shoving her personal fears aside, however, Riley answered.

Centuries ago, the Sorceress had just been a normal woman. The only thing that set her apart from the rest of the normal world was her ambition for evil. It was beyond that of any normal person's and the proof of that came in the form of one of her most daring, desperate, diabolical bids ever. She finally reached a point where she dared to pray to the Cursed God for help in her quest for power and evil. The God had actually answered, shocking as that was, but he said that until she came truly evil, until she sacrificed every last little bit of goodness and love within her heart, she would never be worthy of his blessings.

In response, the Sorceress had promised to do whatever it took to remove her inner goodness, just so that she would be worthy of the Cursed God's gifts. The Cursed God heard the sincerity in the Sorceress' voice and accepted her offer. The Sorceress had to split herself in half, literally purging the goodness right out of her very being. She would keep the evil that remained and then she would be worthy of the Cursed God's help. The Sorceress, hungry for power, did exactly as she was told. That was the night Riley had been "born". When the Sorceress completed the ritual to remove the goodness from her body, that goodness manifested into Riley. The evil that remained became the woman that Alison knew all too well... But then, to ensure that her goodness remained under her control, but still far away from her, the Sorceress did to Riley that which she did to everything she possessed. She locked Riley away, keeping her close, but distant, and hidden all the while so that no one would ever know.

"So I am half of the Sorceress," Riley admitted ashamedly. "And I know that I am the only thing that could possibly defeat her. If we are the same person, I know her weakness. I can defeat her because I am the other half of her..." Riley broke off, sounding disgusted with herself.

"But you are the good half of her," Alison replied, finally understanding why Riley had been so bent on keeping this secret, especially from JPG.

"But the Sorceress nonetheless," Riley argued, so Alison bowed her head respectfully.

"The Sorceress nonetheless," she echoed, her own promise echoing in the air with that statement.

Riley heard the submissive tone in Alison's voice and she exhaled in relief, shoulders slumping as she relaxed. Although Riley did not know the true nature of the relationship between Alison and JPG, she already knew that she far preferred if Alison knew the truth about her split identity than JPG. This was because, as Alison had long-since guessed, Riley was in love with JPG. She wasn't sure when or where these feelings began, all she knew was that there came a day when seeing JPG made Riley feel warm and fuzzy inside. JPG made her smile too big and laugh too hard and she always loved seeing JPG's cute little face. Riley couldn't really explain it in words, not having the vocabulary to do so, but she knew that she wanted to hug and kiss JPG and be with her always.

That was why Riley didn't want JPG to know the truth. The idea of JPG hating her for her secret scared her far worse than the idea of Alison hating her for that same reason. And that was because, as much as Riley trusted Alison, ever since she began to fall in love with JPG, Riley's affection for Alison had decreased. She trusted Alison, but she did not like her, perceiving the vampire to be a rival of hers over JPG's affections. Even if Alison denied having any feelings for JPG, the simple fact that she still got to spend more time with JPG than Riley did was enough to ignite a flame of envy within the young woman's heart. She did not like Alison because Alison had something she wanted: JPG. But at the same time, Riley knew enough about Alison's character to know that if anyone was safe enough to trust with such a big secret, it was Alison.

Alison was wise beyond her years and an expert secret-keeper. Much as Riley hated to admit it, Alison was the best person to tell the truth to. Alison would know what to do with the information, and she'd also know how to keep it hidden until she needed it. Riley knew Alison would be more likely to keep calm and collected with this kind of news on her mind than anyone else would. And it was news that just had to be shared! Unpleasant as this was, Riley could feel it in her bones that at least one other good person needed to know, even if she wasn't sure why. Somehow, a small part of her knew that this secret had to be told. That was where Alison came in. And Riley knew with a certainty even stronger than the glass that held her that Alison would make good on her vow to keep this secret. She'd already proven how good she was at taking dark secrets and controlling her emotions when she managed to reveal nothing to Riley about how she felt, hearing that Riley was literally 50% of the Sorceress.

Although Riley did not know the true nature of the relationship between Alison and JPG, she had a feeling that it wasn't as strong as Alison's relationship with her own sense of self and morality. Though Alison might've adored JPG above all else, Alison's relationship with herself was one she held at a much higher and deeper level than her relationship with JPG. After all, the person you knew best was always yourself! And close as Alison might've been with JPG, there were still monumental differences between the two of them. The largest and most dividing was the fact that Alison was a vampire and had been old enough to be JPG's great-great-great grandmother. Alison's relationship to herself was at least five times older than her relationship with JPG and that was how Riley knew Alison would follow her own moral code and sense of duty above any affection she felt for JPG, platonic or romantic.

In short, Riley knew that Alison's relationship with her own sense of morals, honor, loyalty, trust and secrecy were stronger than her relationship with JPG. That Riley greatly respected and admired. She found herself both confounded and inspired by it. It made her a bit uneasy to think about how beholden Alison was to her own beliefs but, at the same time, there was something really noble and heroic about her reckless and endless sense of honor. And it was understandable, given Alison's less-than-stellar past. Surely, in all her centuries of being alive, Alison had come to realize that the only person whom she could really trust at the end of the day was herself. It would explain why she was so strict with herself. She was all she had at the end of the day. It made her seem a bit inhuman to Riley (beyond the fact that she literally was inhuman) because no human Riley had ever met (though that count only included herself and JPG) was ever that morally disciplined or strict, but it was a really useful trait for someone to have, especially in a time like this.

So, with the secret out, Riley was ready to send Alison away. Or at least, she was almost ready. But there was still actually one more thing she had to tell Alison first. This one was a bit cheerier than her last confession.

"I think I know how I can escape this box," she murmured and Alison was on the alert at once.

"Tell me," she demanded, but her voice remained soft, strong and steady. That kind of iron resolve was what made Riley so confident that she had made a good decision to trust Alison with her secret. Just hearing Alison's firm, steady voice made Riley relax even further. Heaven knew that if she'd said these same words to JPG, JPG would've started freaking out (in a good way) and it would've made Riley really stressed. As eerie and uncanny as Alison's self-control was, it was also very calming and reassuring and it was just what they needed right now. JPG, love her soul, was just too hyper for some secrets. But not Alison, Alison could handle anything.

"The Sorceress sealed me into this box using these things she called Leviathan Seals," Riley explained. "There are three, hidden around the estate, each holding a magical spell that holds this box shut. Until you can find and destroy those Seals, I will remain trapped here..." Riley pressed a hand to the glass with a sad expression while Alison only looked back, calm and controlled.

"I will do my best," she vowed. And Riley knew it was true.

"Thank you, Alison, thank you," she murmured, then she slowly sank down in her box until she was sitting on the floor again, signifying an end to their private talk. Alison understood this, bade Riley goodnight, then left without another sound. Riley watched her go motionlessly.

In the back of her mind, Riley's previous jealousy of Alison about JPG began to fade a little. Tonight's talk had confirmed to Riley that, as much as Alison loved JPG, she loved her personal moral code more. That made Riley happy, twisted as it was to say this. Knowing that Alison was not as close to JPG as she had initially thought, some of Riley's gloom and irritation vanished. She no longer disliked Alison quite as much.

What's more, by trusting Alison with something that not even JPG knew, Riley had effectively forged a special bond with Alison to match the special bond she had with JPG. Now, she had pretty much forced herself to love both of them equally (though in different senses of the word of course) because now both JPG and Alison had one special part of Riley to themselves. In a weird way, they were all on even footing again.

Meanwhile, as Alison returned to the mansion, she turned Riley's confession over and over in her head. Though it was tempting to tell JPG, Alison was intent upon keeping her word to Riley about confidentiality. All Alison needed to do was think about her oath to Riley and then her own sense of honor, loyalty and trust would override her temptation to tell the secret. It was just like Riley had thought. Alison would not betray a friend or break a promise, even for someone she loved as dearly and deeply as JPG.

But even though Alison would never tell anyone about Riley directly, she still decided to leave one single clue behind. That way, if she died before Riley could be freed, or if she personally failed to find and destroy the Leviathan Seals, then someone else could come along and finish the job for her. She already had a hunch that the future heroes would somehow play a role in freeing Riley, so now all Alison had to do was leave a clue for them to find so that they could find Riley.

Eventually, Alison settled upon hiding her clue in a dollhouse, strange and silly as that seemed. She managed to find one in what might've once been a nursery for the mansion, but as no babies lived here, the dollhouse had not been touched in centuries. Alison took the dollhouse back to her own master bedroom and she hid several paper dolls inside. One doll, which looked just like Riley, was placed inside of a glass box that Alison added into the dollhouse. Snugged up against that replica Riley was a letter, written in Alison's hand, but using Riley's words. It read:

"My name is Riley and I am the child that the Sorceress once was. The child that was hurt and sealed away so that she might become a monster. I am her link to the Cursed God's magic she wields. If you free me from my prison, the Sorceress will be stripped of her power. Please save me. I just want to go outside and play like all the other girls."

"Maybe I cannot tell anyone your secret, but you can," Alison murmured as she sealed the letter into the dollhouse. Every word on it had been something that Riley, herself, had said, at one time or another. By this somewhat twisted logic, Alison was not technically telling anyone Riley's secret, she was just making it as though they were overhearing the conversation, even though the conversation was long over. But even if one tried to argue that this loophole was just Alison breaking her vow, she rationalized that this clue was really more intended for a future hero who did not know Riley. She had already placed a spell on the dollhouse, courtesy of Sireen, that would prevent anyone currently living in the mansion (read: JPG) from opening it. That way, at least that part of Alison's vow would remain true and JPG would still never know about Riley's secret.

Alison's mind, though, Riley's secret was nothing to be ashamed of. Sure, the Sorceress was evil, but that wasn't Riley's fault. And Riley shouldn't be punished for it. Besides, Alison knew from personal experience that being a monster didn't make one a monster. If that were true, she would be no different than Dorian or any of the rest of his court, but Alison couldn't have been anymore different if she tried. And just because the Sorceress was evil didn't make Riley that way. She was her own separate person even though they came from the same original form. What's more, Riley was supposed to represent the goodness and love within the Sorceress. If that were so, Riley ought to have been proud of her secret because it meant she was inherently more good than the average person who still had evil residing within their soul. But it was not Alison's secret to tell, so she respected Riley's command and never uttered another word on the topic. The dollhouse remained by her bedside, unseen by anyone but her.

After that, although Riley's story was a secret that never left her mind, Alison managed to keep it tucked away in the very back corners of her brain so that she could use the rest of her head to continue to plot and plan. With JPG, Sireen, Sampson and Riley all at her side, Alison continued to make plans to overthrow the Sorceress and, in time, she added her father's name to the list as well. It became her plan to take Dorian's crown in order to boost her own political power and to make it safer and easier for herself and her allies to fight the Sorceress.

Specifically, she planned upon overthrowing him and then forcing the vampires to fight for her cause instead. This would make it easier for everyone else to resist the Sorceress too. Alison would be able to raise up an army of her own with her new allies acting as "lieutenants" in their own way. Then, she would be able to take in the future nine heroes and ensure that they would not be harmed. And Alison had an outline of whom to look for because Sireen had received another prophetic dream. They would be nine young adults, each from the year 2017, and they would go by titles one might've seen in Alison's age (for example "Novelist", "Railroad Tycoon", "Saloon Girl", "Mystic", etc.) Sireen had seen blurry visions of them all, their faces flickering across tarot cards. It wasn't much information, but it gave Alison a cue as to who she was looking for. Dorian's parties always consisted of guests dressing up in Victorian outfits, but thanks to Sireen's dream, Alison knew exactly who to look for.

And as treacherous as it was for Alison to try and overthrow her father, as treacherous as it was for her to try and use these guests to help her save the mansion by freeing Riley and killing the Sorceress, it still did not go against Alison's character to do so. A vampire's loyalty was immeasurably strong and enduring, even when forcibly taken and especially when willingly given. Alison's loyalty, thanks to Sireen's prophecies, had shifted once more, and this time, it rested with the future nine. It meant nothing for her to usurp Dorian's throne because he didn't have any of her loyalty left. Sure, she still attended his parties, but that was only to eavesdrop on the Sorceress. Alison's true loyalties lay elsewhere and she knew already that killing him would not cause her any distress at all (a far cry from how she had started off).

Because her loyalty now lay with the future nine, even though she had yet to meet them, she knew she would do anything to keep them safe and help them on their quest to save the mansion. And if any of the nine heroes were to ask why she was like this, why she cared for them so deeply and why she was so willing to go against her own vampiric family. If any of them were to ask for her motivations at all, she would answer with her allies in her mind. She would respond while thinking about JPG, Sampson, Sireen, Riley and her own empathy and peace of mind. If they asked her why, she would say: "I'm doing this for them."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: So this wraps it up. This isn't the last chapter, but it shows you how Alison and her allies work until the YouTubers arrive. I know I messed with canon again, by giving Alison all this foreknowledge about Riley and her importance, but I figure that this won't mess with canon too much simply because she still doesn't know about the Crown of Oblivion. 
> 
> (It's my theory that Riley knows about the crown, but because she saw it destroyed and has no idea the Sorceress has been collecting the gems via her lieutenants, it doesn't occur to her to tell Alison about it. Instead, she thinks only to tell Alison about how she, as the other half of the Sorceress, can help save the day. She doesn't even think about the crown because it doesn't occur to her). 
> 
> Then to explain why Alison doesn't bring up Riley's story sooner, let's just say that Liza showing off the journal with the story about the Crown of Oblivion makes her think, "Oh! If we can defeat the Sorceress like this, Riley doesn't have to out herself as being the other half of the Sorceress!" hence why Alison never mentions Riley to the YouTubers and focuses only on the Crown. 
> 
> Also, I've written it that the master bedroom that the YouTubers find Riley's dollhouse in is Alison's bedroom (which I referenced once way back in the "Kira and Haruko" chapter). And although Alison is the one who puts the dollhouse and note in the master bedroom, my headcanon is that, later, all the notes the YouTubers find, explaining to them how to save Riley come from Riley herself. I'll explain how this is so in the next chapter. 
> 
> Also also, Riley and JPG are in love while Alison is a semi-third wheel that Riley is jealous of, LOL. What can I say? 
> 
> But anyway, onto the final chapter...


	14. Chapter 14

In the last decade or so to come, Alison managed to find the three Leviathan Seals, but she was never able to break them.

"Guess I need the heroes," Alison sighed to herself as she stared at the large, glowing symbol etched upon one of the brick walls surrounding one of the many gardens of the estate. Although she wasn't surprised by this fact, it did frustrate her a little to think that she was so powerless to do anything without the heroes. Just once, she wanted to be able to save someone on her own, and not totally rely upon future humans to do it for her, but no amount of magic or machinery would break the Seal, so Alison was forced to wait, just like always. She glared up at the Seal, cursing it.

"I don't have the patience to wait on your stupid magical weakness!" she told it, and then that was when she got an idea...

Following Alison's successful attempt at finding all three Seals, Alison got the brilliant idea to teach Riley a bit of magic of her own. If she really was the other half of the Sorceress, then surely she'd have a natural talent with magic, right? But what was Alison going to teach her? Well, it wouldn't be anything too big, no spell could free Riley from her glass box so a big spell wouldn't do much anyway, but it was going to help the young girl communicate with the outside world. Alison was going to teach Riley a bit of telekinesis.

Alison managed to get Sireen to teach her basic telekinesis, or at least, to teach her the required spell to perform such art, but Alison herself was never able to do more than lift a few pebbles an inch off the ground. She just didn't have magical blood in her veins, but that didn't matter to her. She wasn't the one who really needed this spell anyway, it was Riley. So once Sireen's lesson in levitation was over, Alison took her newfound knowledge back to Riley's treehouse and got the girl to learn how to make things move without touching them. She had far better success than Alison had. Now Riley had a way to "interact" with the outside world. Now that she knew how to make things move with her mind, she could leave notes around the estate for the future nine heroes.

"When they arrive, you can use this pen and paper to send out notes to help them find you," Alison said, placing a pad and pen in front of Riley's glass box. To test it out, Riley waved a hand and chanted the words that Alison had taught her. The pen and paper both responded to Riley's voice at once and rose straight up and she was able to scribble out "thank you, Alison" on the first page of the notepad. Success!

Now, telekinetic communication wasn't the best of options, but it was all they had and Riley was so grateful for Alison finding the Seals and then giving her a way to physically communicate with the outside world that she didn't mind at all. What's more, in time, Riley and JPG became an official couple and that, mixed with Alison's help in finding the Seals, was what killed the last of Riley's old rivalry with the vampire. Now, there was nothing but warmth from Riley to Alison.

Alison, herself, had been totally unaware of this secret rivalry between herself and Riley. It was because she only ever viewed JPG with platonic love, so she never saw herself as a competitor to Riley. She figured that Riley's old hostility with her had just been general angst on her part and even now, the vampire still never had a clue that Riley used to envy her. In Alison's eyes, watching JPG finally declare her love for Riley official had been something she'd seen as a long time coming, not a loss of a competition.

"It's about time," Alison snorted as JPG and Riley kissed awkwardly through the glass.

"Shut up, Alison," JPG replied, voice muffled because her lips were still on the glass.

"You don't talk to your princess like that!" Alison reminded the inventor with a teasing smile.

"You aren't my princess, though," JPG replied, still looking at Riley. "She is," and even Alison couldn't argue with that one.

Alison continued to keep Riley's secret while masterminding a plan to overthrow her father and find the heroes Sireen kept talking about.

"They will be here any day now! I can feel it!" the witch once declared. "That foggy dream with the tarot cards came back to me, only this time, the tarot cards were a bit clearer! I still can't tell you what exactly everyone looked like, but I think it means that the time of their arrival is almost here!" and Sireen sounded so sure of herself that Alison didn't doubt her in the slightest. Insetad, she already made plans for their arrival.

"I will be there when they arrive. I will lead them through the mansion. I will be the one to protect them from Dorian. When they come, I will be there to guide them through their quest to defeat him," she muttered to herself, mapping out the plan in her mind.

And as the days drew even closer, Alison finally decided to do a "test run" of her plan. Although, of course, she knew she could not predict how exactly everything would occur, she ran through several mental scenarios in her mind. She paced herself from the main door of the mansion to Dorian's ballroom and then to the various escapes that she and her future companions could use. She even managed to secure a few sunstones from Sireen, the witch had created them using a bit of that mystical fire magic she'd told Alison about on the night they battled Karin, in case she needed to protect any of the humans from her court members.

"Down the hall, maybe down the stairs, maybe into the chamber in case any of them get caught," Alison chanted to herself. Perhaps all of this pre-planning was a bit over the top, but it was the only thing that kept Alison distracted and feeling like she was actually doing something worth the wait. She even ran down into the lower bowels of the mansion where Dorian usually kept his Warm Ones. Since he didn't realize that the reason they all died so quickly was because of mercy kills from Alison, he continually left them in the same spot, shackled in a back room in the farthest, lowest corner of the mansion. It was well-hidden, but still easily accessible.

Alison took a look at the door, but didn't bother to peek inside. She just wanted to make sure her father hadn't done something crazy, like installing security around the room. He hadn't! Good! So if anything were to go wrong and someone got taken, Alison would know where to go. And since she already knew there wouldn't be anyone inside, Dorian hadn't kept any Warm Ones in recent months, Alison knew because she did a body count, she left the door closed and remained upstairs without taking a look inside. But if she had, things might've gone very differently.

Although her math was correct, there was still a live human shackled away in the darkness. It was a young man who had stumbled into the estate through magic beyond that of the Sorceress. He had not come in carriage like all the other humans before him. His arrival was due to... something else. The Sorceress had found him, running through the grounds, lost and afraid, but once she was finished with him, she handed him off to Dorian as a special gift, attempting to make sure that the vampire king still trusted her. Dorian took the offering exactly as she'd expected and thanked her for it before whisking the young man away to that dungeon-like room.

Now, that particular Warm One had been locked away for a few weeks now. The only time he ever saw the light was when Dorian came down to feed on him. But because he had not been amongst a hunting party group like normal, Alison hadn't even realized he'd been locked away inside. If she had, things might've gone a bit differently for him... But, thinking that she had done all that she could downstairs, Alison returned back to the foyer, running through other scenarios she wanted to test out.

Then at long, long last, just like Sireen had promised, they came. The nine heroes of the future came. And after a near-death experience at the fangs of Dorian, Vera, Calvin and Morgan (in that order), Alison managed to whisk most of them away to safety. She lost one girl, the Explorer, but then she had come to realize that there was a tenth boy amongst the group too. His friends called him Joey. All of Alison's original nine, Explorer included, had recognized him at once. But how? Alison was sure she'd never seen him before, yet somehow, he still had arrived at the mansion, and all of his friends knew exactly who he was.

Alison's first sight of him, of this Joey fellow, had been of him strapped up to one of Dorian's blood-draining machines. It was for whenever Dorian didn't feel like feeding directly. Admittedly, it was a messy process. The machine made it a lot cleaner and it also ensured the survival of the victim for more feedings. Seeing Joey strapped up to that machine made Alison realize that he had been in this mansion for quite awhile and a chill ran down her spine. Just how long had Joey been here? And how had Alison missed his arrival? Little did she know it was because that outside source had practically dumped him right onto the estate grounds on a night Alison had been visiting Riley in her treehouse. And of course, since Alison hadn't even realized that he was here in the first place, she never made any attempt to find or save him. Until now...

Alison quickly escorted her other eight guests to safety. She regretted leaving Joey and the Explorer behind, but if they wanted any chance of saving their friends, they would have to be patient and think things through first.

"If you want to save Joey, you'll have to kill my father," Alison told the remaining eight. Although Joey and the Explorer were still in danger, still stuck in the ballroom, Alison knew Dorian and his vampires would be more concerned with trying to find her and the other eight first. She knew that Joey and the Explorer had at least a couple hours to be saved before Alison needed to start panicking. For now, it was more important to get the other heroes focused on defeating Dorian. He was Priority Number One.

"Why would you betray your father?" one of them, the Novelist, interrupted. Alison paused in her planning to look up at him. Although she did not hesitate to reply, she still felt every single person she had ever loved flash through her mind before she answered his question.

"There are other people who want out, I'm doing this for them..." JPG, Sampson, Sireen, Riley, herself... But Alison, refusing to lose focus now, only shook her head and continued to talk. "Ok, now, there's only one way to kill a vampire as powerful as my father..."

For the rest of the night, although Alison managed to maintain a fang-sharp focus on the tasks at hand, refusing even to let the deaths of the heroes sway her faith in them, that one little phrase she'd told the Novelist refused to leave her mind: "I'm doing this for them." Over and over again, for the whole rest of the night, that became Alison's moniker. It was what she said when she was scared, tired, angry, defeated, grieving or any combination of all of the above. It became a life-saving device for her, something she repeated during the course of that long, cursed night. She said it before every death match and after every loss. Before every monster and after every achievement. While they were hunting for gems that would complete the Crown of Oblivion, the only tool that could free the mansion, Alison would tell herself this. Every gain and loss, every friend and foe, every emotion she faced, Alison would continue to say: "I'm doing this for them."

But then, even when the heroes' quest required Alison to make the ultimate sacrifice, even when the last of her undead life was being ripped away by the claws and teeth of a werewolf (her first and last ever "defeat" in battle), she would say: "I'm doing this for them." Even as she told her brave companions to leave her to die, even as she watched them try to protect her after all she had done for them, even after she watched them flee, even after she was on the ground and in pain, even as the very last sight of them and the rest of the world had gone, even after Alison was totally and finally dead, her life essence imbuing itself into the werewolf gem, all the vampire princess could think was: "I'm doing this for them."

But why? Why was Alison's determination to do this for them so strong? Well, maybe this time, it went beyond vampire loyalty. As strong as that was, there was something even beyond that that Alison would feel every time she thought about all the sacrifices she had made and was making for those nine heroes. It was the crazy belief that they would actually do it. That they would actually complete their quest, rebuild their Crown of Oblivion, free Riley and kill the Sorceress. She had no reason to believe this but, for some reason, she did. So she wasn't just protecting them on idle hope or even deep-seeded loyalty. She was doing it because maybe, just maybe, she somehow knew that they would actually do it.

And sure enough, though she wouldn't be around to see it, the heroes would, in fact, escape the night. Granted, only two would survive, but they would manage to avenge their friends by defeating the Sorceress and freeing the mansion of her terrible curse using their hard-won Crown of Oblivion, all the gems, including the werewolf gem that took Alison's life, firmly in place. One of the two survivors, the girl that Alison had died for, would remember her fondly, setting up a memorial back in her own time. She would be forever grateful for Alison for dying in her place and showing such deep, unwavering, unshaking loyalty to her, protecting them all throughout the whole ordeal no matter the personal cost that had come with it. She wouldn't let Alison's love, loyalty, protectiveness or sacrifice be forgotten, ever. She was doing this, for her.

With the mansion forever in ruins, the curse broken, all of the inhabitants would be forced to go back home. It would be a bit of a culture shock for them, all of them having been inside the confines of that mansion for at least 50 years by then, but they would have no other choice. The surviving vampires would go home with Queen Susanna as their new leader (she didn't shed a tear for her fallen husband or daughter). Jorogumo and her spiders would return to Japan (neither Kira nor Haruko would mourn Alison too terribly, their friendship with her having lapsed away anyway). Sireen would finally go home to her realm to lead her slowly-thawing country. Cedric and his newly-made Automaton Bride would travel the world together using the leftover money from the Sorceress' mansion, and the Dark Army would simply vanish away...

So, everyone that was still alive was sent home while all the fallen found their eternal peace and rest under the foundation of that cursed mansion, which now was no more than a large house, all the magic and terror gone now that the monster responsible for it all was dead. This would come to include the eight heroes who perished for the gems, all of the lieutenants that died trying to keep those gems away from the heroes. The werewolves, the Confederates, Alison, Morgan, Vera, Calvin, Dorian, the Gingerbread Woman, Sampson, Torhil, the harpies, Karin, the Promethean Men. All of them, dead and buried beneath the mansion's foundation.

And as for Riley and JPG? Well, Riley and JPG would walk out of that accursed mansion together, hand in hand. Riley would shake, hardly daring to believe that she was free from her glass coffin, and the evil woman that had put her there. She would revel in the knowledge that she was finally getting to have the life she'd wanted for so long, a life with JPG. And while JPG would never fully recover from Alison's death, she would never dishonor that memory by wasting away in grief. Instead, she and Riley would live the life they deserved. They would travel around and across the globe, together. They would live their lives to the fullest because it was what Alison would've wanted. They were doing this for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: The End!
> 
> Did y'all know this was originally only going to be a one-shot?! (This chapter, starting from "Alison quickly escorted her other eight guests to safety," line and going to the end, was originally going to be the full story). But then, my love for backstories got the best of me and the one-shot became a novella. But hey, I think it turned out really well and I had a blast writing it! I know I messed up a lot of the canon, but hey, it be like that sometimes, right? Anyway, hope you enjoyed, sorry it wasn't very YouTuber centric (to me, the side-characters and backstory were more interesting), but that's just how the story chose to go.
> 
> Also, I've only ever seen S2, so if anyone does comment on this with theories that tie S2 into S1 or S3, I won't understand it. Just thought I'd give everyone a heads up about that. And I have no interest in seeing the other seasons, just another fair warning from me.
> 
> Also also, the only reason I saw S2 (and not the others) was for Alison. (In case you didn't know, I think she's AMAZING). I saw her death in a compilation video, was intrigued by the fact that she actually sacrificed herself, and I have been in love with her and the entirety of S2 ever since. Protective characters are my life and Alison is major protective. In quite a few of her scenes, she's either ready to fight or ready to protect and my heart just explodes every single time. (Sorry, I'm shameless, in case you can't tell).
> 
> And in regard to the story, here's your Joey cameo, AquaEclipse, and the explanation as to why Alison never found him sooner.
> 
> And yes, it's my theory Alison taught Riley magic. Why else would Riley have been able to communicate, through notes, with Joey and the other survivors? And no excuses! Those notes were too situational and direct to have been random chance or dumb luck or prewritten! Riley sent those notes to Joey and friends intentionally, on the fly, as the episode unfolded! And how else would she do this but magic? 
> 
> If anything else confuses, please ask! Thanks!
> 
> (Shout-out one last time to canufeelthemagictonight for being an awesome person and posting an AMAZINGLY well-written novelization of the series and Leah Merone for having an awesome EtN-based Youtube channel, you rock!
> 
> And many thanks to AquaEclipse as well for staying with me throughout this whole fic! I've appreciated every single review you've given! You're the best!


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